Uninvited Company
by Kasani
Summary: What would you do with absolute control over a homunculus? This is precisely the situation Amara finds herself in when Envy crashes unexpectedly into her life. But things are never as straight forward as they first appear. It doesn't take long for her to realize that living alone with the palm-tree-like sin isn't going to be a walk in the park. Hints of EnvyxOC, if you squint.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"I am so screwed." Amara slumped in her chair, burying her face in her hands. Maybe if she didn't look at it, the textbook sprawled open across the library desk would vanish.

"Don't be such a downer. You'll pull it off."

Amara peaked through her fingers. The blonde seated across from her toyed idly with her lip ring, brown-eyed gaze fixed on something out the window in the parking lot.

"Rachel, you have no idea. There's so much I have to memorize, and I still don't even understand a third of it. And I've only got a week to study…"

"You aced the last accounting course you took. I don't understand why you're so worried."

A bitter smile twisted Amara's lips. Being reminded of the usual standards everyone held her to wasn't exactly reassuring.

"Guess I'll just barricade myself in my apartment and study nonstop, and _maybe_ I'll manage to pull off a passing grade…"

Rachel's attention shifted from the window to Amara's face, and she quirked a pierced eyebrow incredulously. "A passing grade? Really, Amara? I can't imagine you getting anything less than an 80."

A pained sigh flowed out of Amara and she shut the textbook in front of her with a thump. Considering she'd barely managed to pull off a 60 on the previous midterm, she didn't share her friend's confidence. But she hadn't been able to bring herself to confess that detail to anyone and there wasn't any point in mentioning it now.

"Yeah well…I should go. I have to get to work on the final unit before I can start my review, and I study better at home anyway." She rose from her chair and bent to slip the massive book into her bag.

Rachel rose as well, a frown of concern making its way onto her face. "Are you sure you don't want to come back to my place and study for a bit? You haven't had much of a social life lately."

Amara pulled up a friendly smile as she straightened. "Thanks for the offer, but I've also got a _ton_ of housework I'm behind on. I need to get that done while I listen to the online lectures."

Rachel raised an eyebrow, apparently unconvinced by the sudden note of cheerfulness in Amara's voice. "Well, alright... Give me a call this evening and let me know how the studying is going, okay?"

"Sure thing." Amara grabbed the grey winter jacket off the back of her chair and pulled it on before shouldered her bag and making for the automatic doors across the mostly empty lobby. When she reached them, she hesitated. She could practically feel the weight of her friend's worried gaze between her shoulder blades. Swallowing down a thrill of guilt, she shot a reassuring smile back over her shoulder and waved before plunging through the doors.

An icy wind buffeted her, blowing a light spray of snow against her face. She slipped her hands into her pockets and hunched her shoulders, ignoring the burn in her ears and nose. Her long coppery hair whipped into snarls as she trudged down the deserted sidewalk. Damn she hated winter. It was bleak, and dark, and cold and dead. And its arrival had brought on yet another debilitating depression, just in time to mess up her semester. It was only January, and already it felt like the longest winter in her entire 18 year existence.

Thankfully, her apartment wasn't far from the library. Rachel probably would have given her a lift if she'd asked. But supposedly the exercise was good for her. And more than that, she wanted to be alone. Away from concerned, prying eyes. Away from people with unrealistic expectations. Away from her parents… The past half-year living by herself had been the most freeing of her life.

At least, that's what she kept trying to tell herself.

Around the next corner, the four-story apartment complex came into view, its slate-blue siding and silver trim blending with the rest of the drab neighbourhood. She hurried forward and bounded up the small staircase to the front door, whipping her card key out of her pocket and swiping it in the slot before yanking the door open and darting inside.

Heat enveloped her, a blessed relief. She plodded across the small foyer to the elevator and pushed the button, then fumbled with her jacket's frozen zipper, shivering. Even with a turtleneck and long-johns beneath her jeans, she felt chilled to the bone. Which wasn't terribly surprising. It was likely -40 degrees out there with the wind chill. Typical January day in western Canada…

When the elevator doors dinged open, she walked in and pressed the 4th floor button, then slumped against the wall as the elevator jerked into motion. She let her book bag slide to the floor as the usual boring elevator music hummed from a speaker in the roof. She'd never been a fan of the stuff. Not that she had anything particular against jazz, but she usually preferred music that was just a tad more… forceful.

Suddenly the speaker gave an odd, crackling pop, and then let out an ear-piercing squeal. She jumped, and then stared up at the speaker wide-eyed as it began to play a very familiar piece of music that sounded suspiciously like….J-pop. And not just any J-Pop. She recognized it as **_Period_** , one of the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood opening themes. She frowned slightly. They never played that sort of music…. Had someone accidentally switched the channel? If so, they should have done it a long time ago. It would've made the elevator rides more enjoyable…

The elevator came to a stop at the 4th floor a moment later, the doors opening with a ding. With a final, weirded-out glance at the ceiling speaker she made her way out of the elevator and down the hall. Her room was the farthest one at the end on the left-hand side, apartment number 48. She slipped the card key into the reader and pushed open the heavy wooden door.

The comforting smell of vanilla washed over her. She'd forgotten she'd left a Woodwick candle burning on the kitchen counter. The apartment wasn't overly large. The small living room, kitchen and front door shared the same room. The fridge and stove were a shiny stainless steel, and black, granite-topped counters made a barrier between the kitchen and the rest of the room. The tiled floor of the kitchen and porch was black, while the soft, living room carpet was a dark slate color. The walls were a wash of light brown with darker stained baseboards and crown moulding. A large window overlooked the snow-covered city, and a glass sliding door led out onto a small balcony. The only furniture in the room consisted of a worn-looking grey loveseat, a coffee table, and a flat screen TV on the wall across from the small couch.

She slipped off her boots and headed down the hall which led to the bathroom and her bedroom. The décor of the bedroom matched the living room, although the swirling gold bed spread on the queen-sized bed added a much needed splash of color to the room. Another window looked out over the city, with long, black curtains pushed off to either side. A small dresser in one corner, a bedside table and a small desk with a laptop and computer chair made up the rest of the furniture.

She dropped her book bag to the floor and made her way over to sink down onto the plush covers of the bed. The place was a little dreary looking. Ordinarily she'd want at least a few pictures on the walls to liven the place up, but she hadn't had the energy or desire to do anything with the place since she'd moved in. It was all she'd been able to do to stay focused on the one correspondence university course she currently had on the go. Her gaze fell on the pill bottles on her bedside table: sleeping pills and antidepressants. Her lips twisted into a bitter smirk. They hadn't really been doing her much good.

She raked a hand through her wavy hair tiredly. She needed to get to work on studying. There was _so_ much to get done. But every time she opened her textbook, the only thing she could think was: _I'm totally screwed._ And the longer she tried to study the more toxic her thoughts became. She hadn't told anyone how much worse the depression was getting. She hadn't mentioned to her doctor that she was growing more and more temped to just take the whole bottle of sleeping pills and be done with everything. No, saying that would mean admitting that the depression was winning. That she really was as weak and useless as she felt. It would confirm that the nasty little voices in her head were right when they said she was just a deadweight that pulled everyone around her down and all she ever did was make people worry... No, it was far better to tough it out alone then subject herself to that.

With a sigh she dragged herself across the room to the laptop and sat down, pulling up the website for her course.

Several hours later it had already grown dark outside. Sunlight disappeared much earlier in the winter. Amara sat with her head resting on her folded arms on the desk. She was trying so hard, but it was ridiculously difficult to focus past the pain and exhaustion; especially when she really didn't care about what she was studying anymore. She glanced up at the screen dejectedly. There was no way she could take any more of this right now. She clicked the exit button on the browser and came face to face with a psychopathic grin on the face of a palm-tree-haired homunculus as her desktop wallpaper. A confused frown settled across her features. She couldn't remember adding any pictures of Envy to the list of wallpapers which the laptop shuffled through... Odd… Not a bad idea though. She'd been meaning to add some new pictures to the list anyway. A faint smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She wouldn't mind watching that particular anime again. It had been a blessed distraction the previous month…

As she stared at the picture an intense wave of fatigue washed over her and she felt her eyelids beginning to slip shut. She blinked them open in surprise, straightening up in her chair. She'd been exhausted for most of the day, but this was the first time in a while she felt like she could actually fall asleep. She raised an eyebrow at the grinning homunculus.

"Apparently you work better than my sleeping pills. Who would've guessed," she murmured dryly. She got to her feet and headed over to her dresser, pulling open the drawer and blindly searching around for some PJs. The room was only lit by her laptop screen and the streetlights from the city outside. She hadn't been kidding when she'd said she was behind on housework. There was an enormous pile of laundry sitting unwashed in the washing machine at the end of the hall; which was where the majority of her PJs were… She grabbed the first item she found, which happened to be an old, too large blue T-shirt which fell to mid-thigh when she wore it. It was a little chilly for this time of year, but it was probably the closest thing to PJs she was going to find at the moment.

It didn't take long to strip off her everyday clothes and chuck them in the corner before slipping into the nightshirt. She made her way swiftly over the bed, goose bumps prickling across her exposed skin from the cool air. She hadn't bothered to turn the furnace up to a reasonable temperature so the room had grown rather chilly. But the cold only added to the heavy sleepy feeling that spreading through her body. It would feel so good just to lie down…

She slipped under the heavy blankets, nestling into the soft mattress and letting out a sigh of relief. Crawling into bed hadn't felt so good in ages. Usually she would simply lie awake, feeling exhausted and miserable but unable to fall asleep. But now she could already feel sleep claiming her as her eyelids slipped shut. Maybe the depression was relinquishing some of its old on her; although that was probably too much to hope for in the middle of winter. Either way unconsciousness was a relief.

* * *

 **a/n: I figure I owe an apology to everyone who used to like this story. I took it down a while back. I was decidedly confused at the time. I'm no longer confused. The best advice I can offer anyone who's interested is extremely simple. Talk to yourself. If you're still in doubt, shut up and do something useful.**

 **God bless you all. ;)**

 **Kasani**


	2. Chapter 2

_"_ _Ah, good. You're finally here."_

 _The strange, inhuman voice was eerily familiar. She'd been slipping through the usual uneasy, nightmarish dreams that came with her depression, until her consciousness had suddenly come into startling focus as she landed in an alarmingly vivid dream. Everything around her was white and empty; except there was a very large, familiar looking door, and a very odd, white humanoid creature with nothing but a grin for a face. Well…her subconscious had certainly outdone itself this time. Why on earth was she dreaming about Truth?_

 _"_ _Umm…what's going on exactly?" she questioned, a puzzled expression playing across her features. Given that she was aware she was dreaming she wasn't too concerned by the situation, but this was definitely not typical of the dreams she usually had._

 _"_ _I have a request to make."_

 _The inhuman entity actually sounded rather exasperated. She raised an eyebrow. She'd never heard its voice take on a tone like that._

 _"_ _What sort of request?" she asked._

 _"_ _I simply cannot stand the annoying little twerp anymore. I realize after characters die I end up having to put up with them in my dimension, but I've had enough of his antics. I need a break, and he needs a tune up," the Truth actually sounded rather annoyed. She stared at it blankly._

 _"…_ _Huh?"_

 _"_ _On top of which, you clearly need your head re-threaded before you do something stupid to yourself. So I've decided to kill two birds with one stone, figuratively speaking. I'm giving him to your care to manage and look after until I deem the two of you have learned your respective lessons. In exchange for having to put up with his abrasiveness, I will give you complete control over him. He will be subjugated to you. This will not only keep him out of trouble, but hopefully it will be a much needed humbling experience for him. And for your safety, any damage inflicted upon your body will be equally inflicted upon his body; which also means if you die, he will die too. So do try to stay alive. I don't want him to come back here any sooner than he has to."The white humanoid's tone was rather dry._

 _Amara blinked repeatedly. She'd had weird dreams before but this was beyond strange…_

 _"_ _Umm…who exactly are you talking about?" she asked uncertainly._

 _The Truth snorted. "You would know him as the fourth homunculus. And I recommend giving a subjugation command as soon as you wake up, or else you may sustain serious damage to your body. He's never been humanity's biggest fan," the Truth sounded amused._

 _"_ _Wait a minute…you mean Envy right?" why on earth was she dreaming this? Was it because of the elevator music followed by seeing Envy's picture before she fell asleep? Or maybe not taking sleeping pills for a change had messed around with her subconscious…_

 _"_ _Oh, and one more thing. Because I don't want you getting rid of him before I choose to let you, you cannot command him to do anything that will result in his injury or death," the Truth added, ignoring her question. Then it grinned. "Good luck Amara. Try to teach him some manners if you can."_

 _The coppertop frowned in confusion._

 _"_ _I don't understand what you're talking about," her tone was a little exasperated. Truth's laughter echoed around her before the scene began to dissolve and blackness swarmed her. Suddenly she found it was rather difficult to breathe. She really needed some air. What was this ridiculously heavy weight that was suddenly crushing her?_


	3. Chapter 3

Her eyes snapped open and her now conscious brain immediately processed two things: She was indeed awake. But the weight hadn't disappeared and she still couldn't breathe. In fact, there was a hand pressed over her mouth, and from the city lights shining faintly from the window she could see the outline of the figure on top of her. Realization crashed over her. There was an intruder in the house and whoever it was, they were attacking her.

One thing she'd never been able to stand was the feeling of someone being in physical control of her. Being pushed around, or pinned down, or held against her will in some form or another was an instantaneous trigger for her redheaded temper. This situation was no exception.

She exploded into action; biting savagely at the hand over her mouth and reaching up to claw at the arm attached to the hand while she thrashed in an attempt to get out from under them. Whoever it was, they were _insanely_ heavy. The reason she couldn't breathe wasn't so much the hand over her mouth as it was the physical weight crushing her chest. She heard an angry hiss and for a second they withdrew the hand from her mouth, probably intending to strike her with it.

"Get off of me!" She gasped, trying without much luck to shove the person away. Then suddenly they were gone. She blinked in surprise, drawing in a much needed breath with the weight removed from her lungs. The figure was standing beside the bed now. How on earth had they moved that quickly? She heard an enraged growl.

"You _filthy_ human scum! You dare to give me orders?!"

The voice was alarmingly familiar and very angry. The figure lunged towards her.

"Stay away from me!" she shrieked, scrambling off the other side of the bed and backing away. She needed to find a weapon. Or something… It was dark in the room, although she could make out the outlines of everything from the light from the window. Her laptop must have gone into sleep mode at some point. She had to get help. There was no way she could fight off an unknown attacker in the dark. Especially given they appeared to be a good deal stronger and heavier than her.

But the figure made no move to pursue her. They remained standing on the other side of the bed. Slowly her mind processed what she could see of his outline. Good lord. Was she still dreaming? It was familiar in a terrifying way. Now that she paused to actually look at the figure she recognized the lithe build and palm tree hair. It didn't matter that she couldn't see his face. Between his voice a minute ago and his outline, there was only one person this could be. Except that it was _impossible!_

 _You would know him as the fourth homunculus. And I recommend giving a subjugation command as soon as you wake up, or else you may sustain serious damage to your body. He's never been humanity's biggest fan._

But that had been a dream! _Just a dream_! What on earth was happening? Had she dropped so low that she was now experiencing a psychotic depression? That didn't make any sense though. She wouldn't hallucinate something like this…

"Who are you?" he hissed. "How the fuck are you controlling me?!"

She stared at him for a moment. Ok. Hallucination or not, she was alone in the dark with a human-hating, pissed off homunculus. Something clearly needed to be done. She turned and darted across the room to the door, slamming her hand into the light switch in a rushed attempt to turn it on.

The warm glow of the lamp by her bed filled the room, revealing that the figure was indeed the cross-dressing, androgynous, palm tree she had suspected him to be. He raised a hand to shield his eyes, blinking and squinting at the light which was now blinding both of them. Then he turned and met her gaze. For a moment they just stared at each other. Her heart was pounding so heart she half wondered if he could hear it from across the room.

And then she panicked.

She dashed out of the room and raced down the hallway. She wasn't even sure what her goal was except that she needed to get away from Envy before he killed her. She didn't think she could outrun him, but maybe if she got a weapon or something she could defend herself somehow. His angry growl and footfalls behind her told her he was in hot pursuit. She let out a shriek and darted into the kitchen, snatching up a large knife from the holder on the counter.

A hand clamped down on her shoulder.

" _Don't touch me!"_ She yelled, whirling to face him, knife in hand. He jerked back as if she had burned him. His expression was an interesting mixture of surprised, angry and confused. She could feel herself quivering with adrenaline as she held the knife in front of her with both hands defensively. Her brain slowly processed how ridiculous this was. What the hell could she do to him with a knife? Even if she managed to stab him he'd just heal himself... _Shit!_

He appeared to recover slightly and tried to lunge at her again but froze centimeters away, apparently unable to lay a finger on her.

"What the hell?!" He growled.

"If you kill me you'll die!" She blurted abruptly.

He blinked in surprise, pulling back slightly with a skeptical expression. "What are you talking about?"

"Truth told me. If you hurt me it'll hurt you too. And if I die you die," she explained in a rush.

His expression grew blank. "…Truth told you?" He blinked. "You mean that little white bastard is to blame?!"

"Shut up!" she hissed, "You're going to wake-up everyone in the building!"

His jaw immediately snapped shut.

She blinked in surprise. He'd actually listened to her….but his purple eyes with their slit pupils were filled with a murderous expression. She shuddered. Ok. Obviously he wasn't obeying her of his own free will. So…did this mean he had to do everything she said? In that case, how was he this close to her? She'd told him to stay away from her….maybe the commands only lasted for a short period of time. Perhaps if she specified the amount of time they needed to last they'd work longer?

"Back up," she ordered him shakily. His expression was seriously scaring her. She definitely didn't want him standing this close to her. He abruptly began to walk backwards away from her, except he didn't stop. He kept backing down the hall. It appeared he was going to walk right into the wall.

"Ok stop!" she blurted. He froze. From his expression it appeared he wanted to explode. She was amazed he hadn't said anything. Oh…wait…he probably couldn't say anything since she'd told him to shut up. "Ok umm…" She was grasping at straws. What was she supposed to do in this situation? She drew in a deep breath, trying to re-order her thoughts. First things first…

"Go sit on the couch and don't get up until I tell you to," she said, her voice wavering a little. She really wasn't comfortable giving orders to this psychopath…

Without a word he walked back down the hall and crossed the room to the loveseat, sitting down and staring at her.

She leaned on the kitchen counter for support as she stared back. Now what? Well, his silence was almost worse than him yelling at this point. "You can talk now, but don't yell."

"You little bitch," He hissed, "When I get my hands on you I'm going to tear you limb from limb, nice and slowly so I can enjoy listening to you scream. Just you wait, I'll—"

" _Shut up!_ " She cut him off fiercely. She felt a shudder run through her again at the tone of his voice, while her stomach twisted in a mixture of fear and disgust.

His jaw snapped shut again and his expression darkened further.

She buried her face in her hands and drew in a deep breath. This couldn't be happening. How was this happening? _Why_ was this happening? So Truth had dumped this asshole on her out of the blue, and now she was supposed to teach him manners? What the _hell?_ She let out a slow breath, forcing herself to calm down and think. If she had control over what he did that meant he couldn't do anything to her unless she let him…right? And if Truth specifically sent him here for a tune-up then she had more than enough reason to not let him walk all over her.

She felt her badly shaken confidence return slightly. If she had control over him, she could handle this. She raised her head and fixed him with a glare. Then she walked around the counter into the living room and came to a halt in front of him, hand on her hip as she started him down.

"Alright listen up," she commanded, managing to make her voice sound more confident than before, "I never asked to have to deal with you, or to have control over you. So thank Truth for that. I have no idea how long I'm stuck with you but as long as you're here, don't you _dare_ swear at me, or threaten me. Am I understood?" She glared darkly at him.

He nodded stiffly.

"Good. You can talk again, providing you _do not_ raise your voice."

A moment passed and he said nothing. He simply stared at her loathingly, clearly itching to tear her to shreds. Thankfully it appeared he remained unable to resist her commands. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Well obviously he didn't want to talk to her if he couldn't swear, yell, or threaten. She glanced up at the clock on the microwave. 4am. Wonderful. She'd finally managed to fall asleep but she hadn't managed to stay that way. Well…now what? She had a pissed off homunculus trapped on her couch. What on earth was she supposed to do with him?

"This is so stupid," she muttered. Her stomach made an impatient grumble and she realized with a prick of surprise she'd never even bothered to eat supper the night before. She glanced at the angry sin and met his glare with a feeling of resignation. Well. Envy clearly had nothing to contribute to the situation so she might as well find something to eat while he sat on the couch and seethed. Maybe she'd be able to come up with something after that…

She headed back into the kitchen and dug in the cupboards. Her eyes lit upon a freshly opened jar of Nutella. Perfect! She snatched it up and glanced at the counter…oh…damn…she'd used up the last of the bread. Oh well, no big deal. She snatched up a spoon from the drawer and headed back into the living room.

She sank down to sit against the wall opposite Envy before unscrewing the lid and dipping the spoon in. She pulled it out and licked off the glop of hazelnut chocolate spread with a hum of satisfaction. She could live on this stuff.

"Is that chocolate?" Envy asked abruptly.

She blinked in surprise, glancing at him. She gave an uncertain nod.

He stared at her with an odd expression. "You're eating chocolate for breakfast?"

"Well yeah. Chocolate is a primary food group," she replied, her tone completely serious.

He continued to stare at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Give me some," he demanded.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. She'd heard he liked chocolate parfaits in that Bluebird's Illusion video game…but she'd never really thought anything of it.

"Ask nicely," she retorted offhandedly.

His glare returned with a vengeance. "May I please have some chocolate?"

The words were clearly forced out and where so at odds with his murderously furious expression that she felt a startled giggle bubble up in her throat. A moment later she lost control and began to laugh. It had a slightly hysterical edge to it, as the stress which had been building up over the last few minutes found a release. After a moment she managed to recompose herself, wiping the tears from her eyes. Envy was still glaring at her.

"What's so funny?" he demanded. She bit her lip to keep from breaking down laughing again. Clearly she was over-tired.

"Sorry. I forgot that you had to respond to me." She sounded very slightly sheepish.

She rose to her feet and headed back into the kitchen, grabbing another spoon from the drawer. Then she hesitated. She didn't mind him having some, but she still wanted some too, which meant they had to share. And she couldn't see any way of sharing it with him that didn't involve getting in close proximity to the angry, lethal homunculus. She glanced at him and he raised his eyebrows impatiently. Well then…

She crossed back into the living room to stand in front of him. "Ok, I'll share it with you on the condition that you won't try to hurt me," she told him firmly. He gave her a flat stare. "Ok?" she demanded. He let out a resigned sigh, but nodded. She swallowed nervously before gathering her courage and sinking down onto the small couch next to him.

She grabbed at the arm of the couch for balanced as she realized the cushion was sloping in his direction way more than she'd expected. In fact, she was amazed her poor little loveseat hadn't snapped in-two under the weight of the green-haired sin. She drew in a breath and handed him his spoon. He stared at it for a moment before taking it. Then he stared at the jar of Nutella she held out to him. Finally he gave her an unenthused look.

"Who said I wanted to share with a human?" he demanded waspishly.

Amara cocked an eyebrow. "What? Are you worried I have cooties?"

He gave her a very odd look, but made no response.

She sighed. "Look. You're in _my_ house, this is _my_ Nutella. I'm being nice enough that I'm willing to share it with you, despite your expressed desire to torture me to death I might add. If you don't feel like sharing then tough shit, you don't get any." She withdrew the jar and dipped her spoon into it again before sucking on it while staring at him flatly.

His eyes widened dangerously and she came to the abrupt realization that if she hadn't made him agree not to hurt her, she would be very dead at that moment. As it was, he was twitching in an oddly amusing way, clearly wanting to tackle her and finding himself unable to move, from her 'do not hurt me' command and possibly from her 'do not touch me' command as well.

A very slow smirk began to play at the corners of her lips. She was starting to realize she could have a hell of a lot of fun with this power if she chose to be a sick twisted person. Luckily for Envy she wasn't inclined to do that. But the thought was still entertaining.

She leaned back against the couch, watching him as she continued to suck on her spoon. The emotions plainly visible on his features and in his gaze spoke volumes about how upset he was. Anger, hatred, confusion, bewilderment… She hummed thoughtfully to herself.

"You must absolutely hate my guts right now," she commented idly.

His eyes narrowed. It was a moment before he responded.

"Seeing as I am unable to swear or raise my voice, I really can't give an adequate response to that," he said crisply.

"It's ok. I have a good enough imagination." She blanched slightly. He was still glaring at her, but he was no longer radiating uncontrollable rage. "So, do you still want some Nutella? 'Cause I don't mind sharing. It's not like I'm sick or anything…"

His expression twisted in a sneer. "I can't catch pathetic human illnesses. And I'm not sharing with _you._ "

She felt a prick of anger. What an ungrateful ass.

"Eat a spoonful dammit," she said flatly, thrusting the jar at him again.

Immediately he obeyed, although fury began radiating from him once more. As soon as the spoon entered his mouth, however, he froze, expression going blank.

She blinked, startled by his reaction.

A moment later his eyes slipped shut and a blissful expression settled across his features.

It was such an abrupt change in mood that she could only stare.

He sucked the spoon clean, pulling it out to stare at it with a slightly disappointed expression. Then Amara let out a gasp as he abruptly reached out and snatched the jar from her, holding it protectively as he took another spoonful.

"Hey," she protested half-heartedly. She was having a hard time believing what she was seeing. The green haired sin was already sucking on another spoonful. He just looked so…blissed-out. Of course, she totally agreed with his sentiments. The stuff was amazing. But she couldn't recall ever seeing him look this happy except when he was ranting about killing people.

She realized with a start that he was going through it rather quickly. "Alright give it back."

He shot her a horrified, outraged look, but was forced to obey. "I thought you said you were willing to share!"

"Yeah, _share_ , not have you eat the whole thing!" she retorted. "I can get you your own jar of the stuff in the morning when the stores open if you want it that badly."

His eyes widened. "Are you serious? They sell this in stores?"

"Uh…yeah…"

"Let me go!" he ordered, "I'll go get some myself!"

Her eyes widened. "Hell no! You are not going _anywhere_ without me. You got that? No way am I unleashing you on my poor, unsuspecting world." She shuddered slightly at the thought of the trouble he would cause. And then, a thought occurred to her. Would other people be able to see him? For that matter, was he even real? Maybe she'd just completely lost her mind. Rachel had always said she would turn into a crazy hermit if she kept isolating herself the way she normally did. Maybe she'd been right after all.

The coppertop shook her head. Well either way, it appeared she was stuck with this guy. And she realized with a terrible sinking feeling that despite this earth shattering occurrence, she still had an exam to study for a week from now…

A hand waved in front of her face, jarring her from her thoughts.

"Helllooooo in there." Envy's tone was slightly mocking. When he saw he had her attention he continued. "Why don't you just let me go and explore this 'poor unsuspecting world' of yours, hmm? Then I'll be out of your hair and that will be that." His tone was persuasive.

She shook her head. "No way. Not happening."

He stared at her for a moment. Then she saw him blink in surprise and glance over at her microwave clock. Then he glanced at his hands. And then he glanced at her.

Her eyes widened as she realized too late that something had clearly changed.

He lunged at her, easily pinning her against the arm of the couch with a hand over her mouth.

A mixture of angry panic shot through her and she instantaneously lashed out, trying to thrash and peel his hand off her face. He grinned at her clearly useless attempts, easily managing to grab hold of both her wrists with his free hand. He shifted so he was practically on top of her again, his weight effectively pinning her legs down.

Despite all that, she was very slightly relieved to note he wasn't hurting her. In fact he wasn't even crushing her. Obviously all of her commands hadn't dissolved at once. But why the hell had the 'don't touch me' command worn off? Maybe she really did need to state a specific amount of time... She felt a horrible sinking feeling as she realized she hadn't done that for the 'don't hurt me' command either. How much time did she have left before she was completely at his non-existent mercy? She had to get his hand off her mouth to give him a more permanent order. But she was thoroughly stuck at the moment.

Dammit to hell she hated feeling trapped like this. She glared up at him fearfully and she felt him chuckle.

"Turnaround is fair play. How does it feel to be helpless?" He smirked twistedly. "Maybe what you said about me killing you is true. But I'm more than capable of making your life a living hell until you let me go," he pointed out darkly. "So what'll it be, hmm?" After pausing a moment to let the words sink in he slowly removed his hand, apparently prepared to slap it back over her mouth if she tried to shout out any more commands.

Despite the desperate nature of her situation, she felt a prick of amusement.

"Sorry buddy. My life's already a living hell. But you're more than welcome to try and make it worse if that's what floats your boat."

His eyes widened slightly in disbelief at the unconcerned response.

"Oh, and I forbid you to hurt me, _ever._ Just in case that command decides to wear off too." She glared suspiciously at him.

He stared down at her, seeming taken off guard and put-out at the same time. Finally he seemed to come up with a response, his expression annoyed.

"Do you have any idea who I am? Do you have any idea what I'm capable of?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Envy the Jealous, 4th homunculus created from the creature that calls himself 'Father'; Instigator, mass-murderer and psychopath. Yes, I'm well aware of who you are. I even know why you're so unbelievably heavy. Speaking of which, I forbid you from shape shifting into your true form without my permission," she added swiftly. Heaven only new the damage he would cause in that monstrous form. Then she hesitated. "Wait…can you still shape shift in this dimension?"

He stared down at her with wide eyes, clearly at a loss as to how she could possibly know all of that about him. Then he frowned curiously. A moment later Amara let out a startled yelp as red electricity crackled over his body and she found herself staring up at…

Herself…

...or rather, an identical copy of herself.

Apparently he'd decided to test his powers out.

"Good lord, that's just creepy. Please change back." Her voice quavered slightly. It was a little disturbing to be suddenly held prisoner by herself. Especially with that twisted expression of amusement on her face. She felt a prick of surprise when he failed to obey. She heard him chuckle with her voice and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

Frick. He made her sound… scary.

That was almost funny in a twisted way.

"I guess saying 'please' turns it into a request instead of a command," he speculated dryly.

She shivered. He really needed to stop using her form.

"Change back," she ordered sharply.

He scowled at her, but the crackle of energy ran through him once more and he returned to his original form.

"Fine then, Ginger brain, what exactly do you plan on doing with me if you force me to stick around?" he demanded irritably.

She stared at him. "Ginger brain? Fine then, _palm tree_. I don't have a fricking clue what I'm going to do with you. Now would you please get off of me?"

His eyes practically bugged out of his head. " _What_ did you call me?" he voice crackled slightly.

She frowned. Having to give him direct orders was turning into a pain.

"Well if you're going to make fun of my hair then I'm going to return the favor. Now _get off!"_ she snapped.

Immediately he released her, returning to his normal seated position on the couch.

She practically leapt away from him, darting across the room to put some much needed space between her and the homicidal maniac.

She drew in a breath and paused to organize her thoughts. Part of her wanted to go and barricade herself in her bedroom and go back to sleep and pray this was all just a very bizarre dream. But she was scared to leave him alone in case her commands suddenly wore off and he ambushed her out of the blue. She glanced back at him and blinked in surprised to see him contentedly dipping his spoon into the jar of Nutella which she had dropped when he'd grabbed her, and sucking the chocolate off slowly.

Well then…

That certainly kept him quiet. She'd have to stock up on the stuff.

She glanced around the room, feeling a little lost. What was she supposed to do now? She couldn't just put her life on hold because a homunculus had taken over her apartment. She still had that exam to study for, and on top of which…

Her train of thought was shattered by the blare of the telephone which made both her and Envy jump.

She stared across the room at the phone on the wall for two more rings before her brain finally kicked into gear and she darted across the room to answer it.

"Hello?" she answered it a little breathlessly.

"Amara! Are you ok? You never called me last night." Rachel's voice was a little miffed.

The coppertop blinked in surprise. "Shit! I'm sorry Ray. I completely forgot. I actually fell asleep, believe it or not..." A hint of sheepishness crept into her tone.

"Oh damn, seriously?! Did I wake you up?! You're usually up by now so I figured…"

"No, no it's fine. Something woke me up a few minutes ago anyway."

She heard her friend sigh.

"Alright. I want to see you today. Either I'm coming there or you're coming here," Rachel's voice left no room for argument.

Amara's eyes widened in panic.

"Uuuhhh…Ummm…I can't actually hang out today." Her voice grew slightly higher pitched.

"Why not?" Her friend's voice was skeptical.

"Um. Well, believe it or not my uh…old friend…from…um….highschool…he showed up yesterday and he's going to be staying with me for a while," she stammered awkwardly.

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment.

"You're letting him stay with you? What exactly is your relationship with this guy?" Rachel sounded puzzled. "You never told me you had friends with benefits."

Amara's eyes widened in shock and the phone slipped out of her fingers.

It clattered across the floor and she scrambled to scoop it up again

"Hey are you alright?! What happened?" Rachel demanded.

"Sorry! I dropped the phone," Amara explained exasperatedly. "And no, he is _not_ a friend with benefits! He's just a friend!" Damn. That was just awkward. She glanced at the sin on her couch to see him staring at her with a _very_ odd expression, spoon frozen partway between his mouth and the jar while he tried to figure out what the hell that statement meant.

"Huh. So when do I get to meet this guy?" Rachel demanded. Amara winced. She and Rachel had only known each other for as long as Amara had been living by herself. They weren't exactly BFFs, but Rachel had a bit of a nosy personality and had taken the idea into her head that Amara needed looking after. The girl rarely took 'no' for an answer.

"Uh," she rapidly tried to come up with some sort of excuse to blow her friend off. "Maybe in a few days. Um, En…ver," she stumbled over the name slightly. "Enver is pretty jetlagged right now."

"Jet-lagged? I thought he was your friend from high school…" Rachel sounded a little suspicious.

"He is! He's just been, uh, living overseas since he graduated," Amara explained quickly.

There was a brief silence.

"…Right. Well…ok then. I guess I'll let you get back to him then. I'll call again tomorrow to see how things are going…You better not be making this guy up so you can be alone…" Her friend warned.

"Oh no, I'm definitely not making him up," She reassured her. If only she actually was…

"Alright then…I'll talk to you tomorrow," Rachel replied reluctantly.

"Ok! Bye!"Amara quickly hung up.

She stared at the phone in her hand for a minute before glancing back at the green haired sin.

Envy raised an eyebrow. "Friend with benefits? What kind of benefits?"

Amara blinked, before chuckling nervously."If you don't know then I'm not telling you. Either way you sure as hell _aren't_ that." She shuddered slightly. No. Just…no. Then she glanced at him thoughtfully. That shape shifting ability could have maaaany different uses… She face-palmed and shook her head. _No_. Now was _not_ the time to jump on that train of thought.

She stuck the phone back on its charging base and raked a hand through her hair in exasperation.

"I am so screwed," she muttered. She glanced at Envy again. "Why the hell did you have to show up now of all times? If you'd waited a week my exam would be over and Rachel would be on vacation on the other side of the country," she griped tiredly.

Envy gave her an irritated look. "You think I _want_ to be here?"

She sighed in resignation. "No. But I do think you'll be more than happy to screw everything up while you're here."

Envy's expression grew thoughtful.

Amara glanced at the clock again. 4:30am. Well… Obviously she wouldn't be getting any more sleep; which meant she was in serious need of some coffee.

"Hey palm-tree," she asked, turning to head into the kitchen.

His expression instantly morphed into a glare. "What?"

"Do you like coffee?"

Her question seemed to take him off guard. He stared at her with a puzzled expression for a moment.

"Well?" she demanded.

Finally he gave a slow nod. She felt mildly surprised. Coffee and Nutella. Well…at least his preferred diet seemed to match up with hers. Although…he probably didn't really _need_ to eat anyway, being a homunculus and all. She reached into the cupboard and pulled out two mugs.

"I want the green one!" he demanded sharply. She let out a sigh and wilted slightly. The sun hadn't even risen and she already looking forward to crawling into bed that night and hiding from her life. Obviously this was going to be a very long day…


	4. Chapter 4

_"_ _Good, you survived your first day. That bodes well for your future together."_

 _The inhuman voice echoed around her as she opened to her eyes to the empty white space once more._

 _"_ _Yeah…" Amara was less than thrilled. She'd managed to get a minuscule amount of studying done, but only after she'd ordered the sin to shut up and not move for an hour. Actually, she'd worded it as a permanent command but it had worn off… which had been rather frustrating… And then the bastard had had the nerve to actually guilt her into not reapplying the command. It was ridiculously unfair how well he could play up his misery to pull at her heart strings. It had been so unexpected and how on earth was she supposed to say no to such a pitiful face? How did such an evil creature manage to look so adorably miserable?_

 _Manipulative asshole._

 _She knew he was just playing her for a fool._

 _But at least when he was doing that he wasn't being as much of a jerk…_

 _"_ _There was one small detail I neglected to mention earlier," Truth admitted._

 _Amara's eyes narrowed suspiciously."What?"_

 _"_ _The commands you give immediately lose their effect once you lose consciousness. You'll have to reapply them when you wake up," it told her matter-of-factly._

 _"_ _Say_ _ **what**_ _?!" she shouted in outrage. "How is that fair?! He'll murder me in my sleep!"_

 _"_ _Unlike you, Envy isn't bordering on suicidal. I very much doubt he'll do anything that would risk his second demise," Truth retorted dryly._

 _Amara stared at the humanoid in horror. Ok so he wouldn't kill her. There were still a lot of bad things that could still happen without her dying…_

 _Truth chuckled._

 _Amara's eyes narrowed in anger._

 _"_ _You're enjoying this aren't you?" she seethed, "You like making people miserable! I'm starting to think Envy doesn't like you for a good reason you bastard!" she glared blackly at the creature._

 _It grinned and tisked at her infuriatingly._

 _"_ _Now Amara, how does losing your temper set any sort of good example for your charge? Speaking of which, you might want to consider waking up now. He's up to no good again…"_

 _"_ _I hate you!" She hissed._

 _"_ _You sound like you're feeling better. I knew a little distraction was all you needed."_

 _It chuckled at her fury and the scene slowly dissolved._


	5. Chapter 5

Her eyes snapped open and she gasped.

She had a distinct memory of falling sleep under the covers, and yet she was currently lying on her side on top of the bedspread. And she couldn't move her arms or her legs. Her ankles and wrists were bound very snuggly by strips of black fabric; a little too snuggly for that matter. She'd lost feeling in her hands and feet.

She glanced at the window and realized with a spark of outrage that the green haired idiot had torn up her curtains in order to find something to tie her up with. Morning light streamed through the uncovered window. How the hell had she slept through all of this?! She _wasn't_ a heavy sleeper! The fact that he'd managed to pull off this entire situation without waking her up was a little disturbing.

Her heart kicked into double time. Where the hell was he? When had he gotten the bright idea to tie her up and run off? How long had he been out on his own? What on earth had he gotten into while she was tied up here unconscious? She felt the anger left over from her dream with Truth bubble up afresh.

How _dare_ he tie her up and leave her like this!

"Envy!" she yelled furiously, "Get your ass back here and untie me _right now!_ "

There was an uncomfortable period of silence following her dramatic order. She ground her teeth in frustration. The orders probably wouldn't work if he couldn't hear her. Well, in that case, she'd just have to somehow get from here to the kitchen and figure out how to cut her bonds with her hands tied behind her back… It sounded a little challenging.

But she was pissed off enough that she was pretty sure she could manage it.

At that moment she heard a loud crash from down the hall, and then a second later her bedroom door burst open. A blur shot across the room and the next thing she knew something had sliced through the bonds on her wrists and ankles. She gasped in surprise and jerked around to see none other than the jealous sin standing by her bed looking supremely frustrated.

"Dammit all I should have gagged you!" he snapped.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?! Where did you go?!"

He held up a grocery bag filled with jars of nutella.

Amara's eyes widened. "Did you steal those?"

"Well duh," he retorted.

She paled slightly. "Please tell me you didn't kill the poor clerk,"

"Well _somebody_ interrupted me before I got the chance." He scowled at her accusingly.

Amara rested her face in her hands. "Did you kill anyone else while you were out and about?" Her voice was slightly muffled but held a despairing edge.

"No," he replied sourly.

She glanced up at him suspiciously.

He rolled his eyes. "Why would I lie about that? Hell, after seeing how much it upsets you I'll make a point of slaughtering some of the idiots next time I get out."

Her hands clenched into fists and she stared down at the swirling gold bedspread. This had the potential to be very problematic. He couldn't kill her, but there was nothing stopping him from going after other people. She couldn't let that happen. But how was she supposed to prevent it if he got free every time she fell asleep? She couldn't stay awake for ever. But there had to be _something_ she could do…

"Envy." Her voice was flat.

He hummed questioningly.

She fixed him with a serious stare. "I promise not to give you any more orders, if you swear not to go anywhere without me again."

It was a bit of a desperate request, but she couldn't think of anything else she could bargain with. He stared at her, his eyes widening slightly. Several moments passed and she half wondered if he was even going to answer her. Then suddenly his lips twisted in a wicked smirk.

"Alright, I swear," he agreed abruptly.

She felt a chill run through her.

He sounded way too pleased about this.

Then before she could blink he grabbed her off the bed and locked her in a choke hold, his arm shifting into a blade to press against her neck. She gasped. What was he _doing_? He gave a low chuckle that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

"In that case, I'll just take you with me to watch while I murder them." His voice was filled with twisted glee.

"Envy let me go!"

"Make me," he whispered against her ear, his tone darkly amused.

She felt a horrible dropping sensation in her stomach. What had she done? Had making that promise actually stripped away her power over him?! She hadn't intended for that to happen! She couldn't let him do this. The mixture of panic and frustration at being forcefully restrained yet again stripped away her caution. She did the only thing she could think to do.

She slammed her neck against the blade he had pressed to it.

She let out a yelp at the fiery pain which bit into her throat, but she heard a pained hiss from behind her and suddenly the arms around her let go. She stumbled forward, a hand coming up to press against the strip of agony now pulsing across her neck. Warm liquid flowed between her fingers and down her neck onto her shirt. She felt a flash of anxiety and hoped she hadn't managed to slice an important artery. Bleeding to death sounded like an unpleasant way to die. She turned to glance back at the sin and saw he was doing the same thing as her. He had a hand pressed to his neck and a pained expression on his face.

"You bitch," he hissed, his voice strained, "Why the hell isn't this healing?!"

Amara's eyes widened in realization. Perhaps wounds inflicted on him through her own body weren't affected by his healing powers..? If that was the case, she still had a bit of control over him after all. As unpleasant as it was, she could injure herself to get through to him if it came right down to it. And he wasn't a fan of pain, so it would probably be reasonably effective.

Of course, she wasn't the biggest fan of pain either, but she suspected she still possessed a higher pain tolerance than the sin.

"If you try to hurt anyone I'll kill us both," she warned him fiercely.

He gave her a horrified look. "Are you insane?!"

"Yes. Don't test me," she told him flatly. She even managed to keep a straight face. But that was mainly because she was dead serious. She'd already been tossing around the idea of taking her own life over the last couple weeks. If she suddenly had to go ahead with the idea to keep people from getting hurt on her account, she was pretty sure she could pull it off without too much trouble.

He continued to stare at her. "What is _wrong_ with you?!"

She snorted. "Don't be a hypocrite. You're more screwed up than I am." Then she winced. The pain in her neck increased when she spoke. "Let's get these wounds bandaged up before we pass out from blood loss," she suggested, turning and heading towards the hallway.

After a moment she heard him follow after her.

A little while later the two of them stood in the living room, staring each other down. Their necks were dressed and bandaged thanks to the first aid kit Amara kept in the cupboard under the bathroom sink.

"You broke my door," She accused, glaring at the jealous sin.

It was true.

The wood was splintered and the door hung at a bit of an odd angle. She'd managed to shove it shut, but the latch was broken too.

Envy rolled his eyes. "Well if _someone_ hadn't demanded that I come racing back here, I wouldn't have had to break back in. Blame the locks on the doors or blame yourself. Don't blame me." He bent to pull a jar of Nutella out of the bag he'd set down on the coffee table. "Get me a spoon," he ordered.

She raised her eyebrows incredulously. "Get your own damn spoon."

"Do you _want_ me to tear apart your kitchen?" he asked blandly.

She stared at him for a moment before her expression slipped into a glare. "Asshole." She turned and headed back into the kitchen to fetch his spoon.

She grabbed it and chucked it at him from across the room, rather hoping it would hit him in the head.

He easily snatched it out of the air and smirked tauntingly.

She rolled her eyes.

And then the phone rang.

She made an exasperated sound. "Damn it all Rachel, now is so not the time!"

"What are you going to do if your friend shows up here?" Envy sounded slightly curious as he settled onto the couch with his jar of Nutella.

Amara massaged her temples. "I have no fricking clue. I'd need _you_ to shape shift into a normal looking person and I'd need to cover up our injuries somehow."

Envy snorted. "Sucks to be you."

Amara's eyes narrowed. "Don't make me hurt you." her tone was soft but dangerous.

Envy shot her an incredulous look. "Are you threatening me?"

She gave him a serious look as she picked up the still ringing phone and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Amara! How are things with Enver?" Rachel inquired cheerfully. "What kind of name is that anyway? It's bizarre sounding."

Amara blinked.

"It's Turkish…"

"Your friend is Turkish?!"

"Ummm…..yes…"

"…I'm really looking forward to meeting this guy," Rachel's tone was curious.

Amara wilted slightly and then shot a glare at Envy. "Alright, but I don't think you'll like him much. He's a total asshole," she replied evenly, her gaze daring the sin to react to the insult.

Envy raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, then why do you hang around with him?" Rachel sounded puzzled.

"It's really complicated. So um… if you want to come over you can, but…could you maybe come late afternoon? I'd like to get some studying done while my brain is still relatively fresh," Amara said.

"Alright, sounds good. I've got somewhere to be this evening though. Is 3 o'clock ok?"

"Yep that's fine. See you then!" Amara replied.

"Bye!"

Amara hung up the phone.

"Why did you invite her over?" Envy sounded confused. Amara glanced at him, her expression resigned.

"If I hadn't she would have just come anyway. And seeing as how you broke my door, I can't exactly lock her out," she pointed out. And then she paused. "Say, how good are you at turning into Turkish people?"Envy's eyebrows shot up.

"Excuse me?" he asked in disbelief.

"Well…she kind of thinks you're Turkish…" she explained sheepishly.

He stared at her, his expression unreadable."…Turkish?"

She nodded.

"What the hell does that mean?" He sounded more puzzled than annoyed.

Amara blinked. Right… there weren't any Turkish people in the Fullmetal Alchemist world.

"How about I show you a picture?" She suggested.

He gave her a skeptical look.

She rolled her eyes. "You can bring your Nutella with you, just come to the bedroom," she said, turning and heading down the hallway to her room.

She heard him let out a heavy sigh.

"Has anyone ever told you how extremely annoying you are?" he inquired, getting up to follow her.

"As a matter of fact, no, they haven't," she retorted, sinking down into the computer chair and waking her laptop from sleep mode.

"Huh. Well I'm telling you now. You're annoying," he said flatly, coming to a stop behind her chair.

Amara snorted, opening up her browser and entering in a search for Turkish guys under Google Images. It loaded for a moment, and then a series of images popped up. Amara did a double take.

Wait…what? Wow…

"Huh. Well I suppose you could have picked a worse bunch of humans for me to look like," Envy mused.

Amara nodded slowly. He wasn't kidding. There were some _extremely_ attractive Turkish guys in these images.

Well, if you were into the tall dark and handsome look anyway… Which…she had to admit… she kind of was… She shook her head. This was rather unexpected. She glanced at the green haired sin. He had a speculative look on his face. She frowned.

"If you hurt her I'll hurt you through me," she warned suspiciously.

Envy rolled his eyes. "Aright you little masochist. I'll play along with this." There was an amused glint in his eyes, "And I'll even promise not to hurt her." He sounded suspiciously innocent.

Amara's eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed suspiciously. "What are you up to?"

He smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know? But beggars can't be choosers. You need my help," he pointed out smugly.

Amara grimaced. "I have a very bad feeling about this…" she glanced back at the laptop.

Envy snorted.

She raked a hand through her messy copper waves exasperatedly. "Alright, you need to leave, because I need to study," she told him firmly. "So take your Nutella and scram."

Envy raised an eyebrow. "And what if I don't?"

Amara stared at him.

Well she wasn't about to start injuring herself over something like this.

"Fine then. Stay. See if I care. But you'll be bored," she warned, reaching for her accounting textbook lying on the desk.

She reluctantly opened it to the final unit and grimaced down at the text. An unexpected buzzing sound caused her to glance up in surprise. Her cellphone was lying on the desk by her laptop, the screen lit up indicating she had just received a text. Her brain eagerly lighting upon anything _aside_ from what she needed to be studying, she reached for it and unlocked the screen.

Her mind went blank as she stared at it in shock.

Had hell frozen over?

"What's that?" Envy demanded, leaning over her shoulder to stare at the phone

"My dad just texted me," she sounded as stunned as she felt.

"…I'm going to assume that's some form of communication," Envy sounded slightly exasperated.

She nodded slowly.

"Why is this a shocking occurrence?" he asked skeptically.

"He hasn't bothered even trying to talk to me in over a month. He uses mom to keep tabs on how I'm doing," she muttered, frowning down at the cellphone.

Envy raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like a bizarre parental relationship."

Amara sighed. "He's never been much into the whole parenting thing. That was mom's department. It's not that he doesn't care…I just don't think he knows how to act with me..."

"So what did he say?" Envy demanded, clearly not overly interested in her family dynamic.

She rolled her eyes and glanced down at the message which she'd completely neglected to read in her surprise over the sender of the message.

 _Amara. Are you okay?_

The coppertop frowned. Inquiring after her well-being wasn't something her father was usually made a habit of unless something was glaringly wrong. She couldn't imagine what had motivated him to do so now.

 _I'm alive and breathing. Why?_

She replied curtly. His sudden interest in her well-being after receiving the cold shoulder for such an extended period actually pissed her off to some degree.

The phone buzzed again.

 _Good. What was the name of that anime you mentioned last time I saw you?_

The coppertop stared down at the phone, utterly floored. Had somebody drugged him? Maybe he was drunk. Not that she'd ever seen him touch alcohol. But her brain was floundering uselessly trying to come up with an explanation for his totally out-of-the-blue question. Given how infrequent and awkward their conversations tended to be, TV shows weren't typically a subject that came up often. She thought back to the last time she'd actually seen him. She couldn't remember mentioning anything about anime. But the only anime she'd bothered to watch recently had been the one which included the homunculus standing behind her.

 _Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood….Why?_

She stared down at the phone, expression perplexed. Curiosity was eating at her. She couldn't even begin to imagine why he'd bothered to bring this up. After several minutes passed with no response she grew frustrated.

Was that all he was going to say?

She moved to set the phone down when it buzzed again.

 _Thank you._

She stared at the response for a moment, before making a frustrated sound and tossing the phone onto the desk. Clearly he didn't intend to explain further. And she already knew there was no point in pressing him about it. He'd just turn his phone off to avoid her.

"Well that was enlightening," Envy sounded a little disappointed.

"Tell me about it," she muttered, returning her attention to her textbook. Whatever. If he wanted to keep secrets she'd just ask him about it next time she saw him. He was an abysmal liar, so she'd probably find out eventually. It was probably something stupid, like a co-worker wanting to know if he knew of any good cartoons for their kids to watch. Small talk wasn't really her dad's forte.

Still, it was highly unusual for him to go out of his way to ask his daughter for help.

She shook her head. No point in worrying about it. She had more important things to focus on anyway.

An hour later she rested her head against the textbook in defeat.

"I can't do this. I'm so screwed," she muttered. The final unit was on Intangible Assets and Goodwill, and she couldn't force her tired brain to wrap itself around the concepts. It was _so_ boring, and she was _so_ unbelievably tired of this subject. On top of which it was complicated and just staring at the textbook made her want to curl up in a dark hole somewhere and die.

She heard Envy come to a stop by her chair. He'd been pacing up and down for the last ten minutes, doing an excellent job of shattering her fragile concentration.

"Please, just kill me now," her voice was a muffled moan of despair.

"What are you studying?" The sin sounded a little weirded-out.

"The subject from hell," she muttered.

Envy raised an eyebrow. "So…Introduction to Damnation 101?"

She gave him a wilted look. "Ha. Ha. It's Intermediate Financial Accounting 351."

"Huh. Sounds boring,"

"Yep, pretty much,"

"So…are you seriously going to keep sitting there and staring at it?" he inquired.

She made a sound of frustration and rubbed her eyes.

"If I keep studying I might be able to pull off a passing grade," she grumbled.

"…And maybe you won't. Is it really worth killing yourself over?" he asked dryly.

Her eyes widened and she stared at him for a moment before she realized he hadn't meant for her to take the statement literally.

She shook her head slightly to clear it.

"Umm…well if I fail it my dad might want me to move back in with him," she pointed out reluctantly.

Envy rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Then suddenly he reached in and snatched the textbook away from her.

"Hey!" she cried, "What are you doing?"

"I'm bored," he replied matter-of-factly. "Entertain me."

Her eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." He smirked.

Her expression morphed into a glare. "Give that back. I don't have time to entertain you, I need to study!"

"If you want it, come and get it." Envy held the book up tauntingly.

Amara felt a wave of anger. "Oh no. No you don't. Give it back _right now_!" She rose to her feet.

"Make me." Envy grinned.

That did it.

"You asshole!" She lunged at him but he easily dodged her with a chuckle.

"Oooooh, I think I made it _angry_ ," he replied tauntingly, holding the textbook up with one hand.

Amara made a grab for it, but suddenly his arm crackled, and then stretched much longer than humanly possible up towards the roof.

"Dammit Envy that is _not_ fair!"

Envy snickered. "You're so easy to rile up it's almost boring."

She stared at his superior expression for a moment. She was teetering on the edge of completely losing it. After the last two days, stress had completely worn down the already fragile control of her temper.

"Envy…" her voice held a dangerous edge.

"Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I did this," His arm shrank back to normal size and he grabbed the textbook with two hands, clearly intending to tear it in half.

Something inside her snapped.

She leapt forward and full out tackled him, taking him off guard enough that he actually dropped the textbook and staggered backwards. Any sort of clear thinking had gone out the window. The only thing in control now was the furious desire to tear the idiot palm tree to shreds. She'd never had any formal training in fighting. But that didn't matter. It was plenty simple to hit, slap, scratch, hair yank and head-butt an opponent.

For a moment the green haired sin was actually taken aback by her raging onslaught, allowing her to land several satisfying blows and a rather deep scratch across his cheek.

But then he recovered.

In an instant she was pinned against the wall, both arms pulled up over her head and firmly secured by one his hands.

"My my. You've got quite the little temper on you." His tone was darkly amused.

She growled in frustration as she saw a crackle of red light across his cheek, wiping away the damage she'd managed to do. She lunged forward against his grip but he jerked back slightly, meaning her teeth snapped shut on air instead of the end of his nose. His eyebrows shot up. "Hey now, take it easy. I don't want to have to hurt you."

"Yeah, only because you're a total wimp," She spat.

His eyes narrowed.

Then abruptly he kneed her in the gut.

The wash of pain as the air was brutally forced from her lungs caused her to collapse forward with a gasp. But she wasn't the only one collapsing forward. Her forehead smashed resoundingly against the green hair sin's face as he too was overcome by the effects of being kneed in the gut.

He gasped out an oath as both of them collapsed to the floor.

Amara struggled to breathe for a second or two. Then as she finally managed to pull some air into her lungs she began to laugh painfully.

"You actually fell for it! You're an idiot!"

Envy hissed in anger, cradling his bleeding nose with one hand and his throbbing stomach with the other. A moment later red light crackled across his nose, healing the damage there. But there was no such relief for his lungs and stomach.

She grinned and stuck her tongue out at him. "How do you like a taste of your own medicine?"

"You little bitch," he growled.

She smirked. "Come on then. Hit me. I dare you."

For a minute she wondered if he was actually going to fall for it again. His expression darkened alarmingly. On second thought, maybe provoking him too much wasn't a good idea. He might actually kill her by accident…

"Don't push your luck." His tone was low, and rather frightening.

She gulped.

Ok…time to back off a bit.

She drew in a slow, painful breath, wincing as her insides throbbed. Her gaze landed on the textbook laying a few feet away. She felt a prick of relief to see it was undamaged. With a pained sigh she lay back on the carpet, hands resting on bruised torso.

"Damn. Why do you have to have such bony knees?"

Envy snorted. "That's what you get for provoking me you little twit."

"Hey. You started it."

He rolled his eyes.

"So have I entertained you enough?" She demanded.

"Oh no you don't. You're not getting off that easily." The rather irritated homunculus pushed himself to his feet.

Amara blinked, staring up at his expression with a prick of unease. Maybe she'd pushed it a little too far…

The next then she knew he'd grabbed her arm and yanked her roughly to her feet.

"Oww! What are you doing?" she demanded nervously. His face was uncomfortably close to hers and she wasn't a fan of the way he was leering at her.

"You're going to make up for what you did," he told her darkly.

Her eyes widened. "H-how exactly…?"

He smirked. And then he set off for the hallway, dragging her after him.

"Hey! Stop! Where are we going?!" She dug her heels in to no avail. There was no way in hell she could come close to matching his strength.

He gave her no answer, continuing out to the porch and yanking the damaged door open.

" _Envy!_ "

"Shut up," he growled.

Her jaw snapped shut and a thrill of fear shot through her at his tone. Man, she hadn't thought this through. Why again had she chosen to piss him off? He continued to drag her out into the hallway and down to the elevator. He pressed the button and the waited. She eyed him nervously. What on earth could he possibly be up to? Realistically there was only so much she could do right now. She hadn't been able to grab a weapon or even anything sharp, so injuring herself to control him would likely prove challenging.

The doors slid open with a ding and he yanked her roughly into the elevator. She staggered to a stop beside him as he pushed the main floor button.

"Seriously, what are you doing?" she whispered, eyes wide.

He glanced at her and smirked. "Awe, what happened to that fiery attitude you had a minute ago? You look scared."

She continued to stare at him blankly. She might have a bit of a short temper, but she wasn't an idiot. This situation could end very badly if she didn't come up with something. What was he planning to do? Was he really going to go out and start slaughtering people left, right and center with her dragging along after him?

The doors slip open and he dragged her out across the foyer to the doors.

"Wait, Envy, it's a blizzard out there. I don't have a jacket!" She protested.

It was indeed snowing quite heavily, and judging by the way it was moving in a horizontal direction, the wind was clearly very strong. On top of which, she was only wearing her long nightshirt that she'd slept in, and her feet were bare.

He ignored her, shoving the doors open and pulling her out into the storm.

The wall of cold hit her so intensely it left her gasping for air. She could feel the inside of her nose instantly freeze and her lungs vehemently protested the icy oxygen she was gulping in. The exposed skin on her legs, arms and face burned fiercely from the bitter wind, and her feet throbbed painfully from coming into contact with the freshly fallen snow covering the stairs and sidewalk. She was instantly chilled to the bone, shivers beginning to wrack her body. A moment later her teeth began to chatter as well as she staggered along after the green haired sin.

"E-nvvy, you c-can't do this. I'm g-going to f-f-freeze to death!" She scrunched her eyes shut against the onslaught of snowflakes which pelted her face. She was already loosing feeling in her feet, hands and ears.

She heard an annoyed growl.

"You humans are so pathetically weak," he grumbled.

She saw a crackle of red light and a moment later a long jacket and boots were shoved into her arms. She staggered and nearly dropped them, shivering so violently that it was difficult to keep hold of them. Swiftly she dropped the boots to the ground and slipped her numb feet into them awkwardly. She yanked the jacket on and fumbled with the zipper until the unfeeling stubs which were her fingers managed to zip it shut. Thank heavens it was a heavy winter jacket that fell nearly to her ankles and the boots he'd given her came up to her knees.

How he knew her size she didn't have a clue.

On second thought, maybe she didn't want to know…

As relief washed over her she glanced at Envy and did a dramatic double take. For a minute she thought he'd run off while she was dressing and some other guy had shown up. The older teen standing before her was tall, with darkly tanned skin and wavy black hair swept back from his face. His eyes were large and deep brown, rimmed with long dark lashes. He possessed a strong jawline, ruggedly handsome features and a dusting of five o-clock shadow. It was difficult to tell under the black leather jacket, but he appeared rather muscular as well.

It took a moment for her to realize she was gaping at him.

Her jaw snapped shut and her cheeks, already flushed from the cold, grew a shade darker. He probably hadn't intended it, but he'd managed to shapeshift into a form which epitomized her 'type'. It felt unbelievably weird and a little disturbing but she had to admit, in this body he was downright sexy.

He raised an eyebrow. "How do I look?"

"…I probably shouldn't answer that," her voice came out a little hoarse and she coughed slightly.

He snorted. "Come on. If I drag you it'll look suspicious." He turned and walked away down the sidewalk.

She blinked, and then hastened to catch up with him.

She didn't have a clue what he could be up to. If his intent was slaughtering people then she wasn't entirely sure why he'd bothered to change into Enver, the Turkish guy. Well… regardless, she was just relieved to have boots and a jacket. She was still chilled, but at least now she wasn't in danger of hypothermia.

It was snowing heavily enough that it was difficult to see where exactly they were going, but Envy seemed to have a specific destination in mind. The wind whistled between the buildings ominously and stirred up swirling clouds of powdered snow around them. A moment later they rounded a corner and Envy came to a stop by the door of a shop.

Amara blinked in surprise, glancing up at the sign. This was her favorite ice-cream parlor. Why had he brought her here?

"Inside," he ordered, pulling the door open and waiting for her to enter. She obeyed without complaint, hurrying through the door into the welcoming wave of heat inside the building.

The elderly woman behind the counter glanced up at them and grinned cheerfully. "Amara! It's wonderful to see you. How have you been?"

Astoundingly there were several other customers seated at the various tables around the shop eating ice-cream.

Only Canadians would be absurd enough to go out for ice-cream in a blizzard…

"Oh. Hello Grace. I've been good. Yourself?" She replied, hastening to put her scattered thoughts in order.

"Oh, same as always," the lady replied with a smile.

Amara glanced uncertainly at Envy.

He smirked before strolling up to the counter.

"I'd like a chocolate parfait," he told the clerk before glancing at Amara with a raised eyebrow. She stared at him, utterly floored. He wanted her to make up for attacking him…by buying him ice-cream? Seriously? She'd been bracing for an all-out slaughter fest, and this was really all he'd been planning?

"Uh…um…I'll have the same," she turned her gaze on the elderly woman, doing her best to keep a normal expression on her face.

"Oh, so he's with you then?" the lady inquired, a sly expression crossing her wrinkled face. "So is this your new boyfriend?"

Amara's eyes widened in shock as her mind reeled with the implications. She opened her mouth to assure her that he most definitely was _just_ a friend, when an arm slid around her shoulders and pulled her against his side.

"That would be me," he replied smoothly, an amused smirk playing across his lips.

Amara froze, thoughts scattering off in wild disarray at the unexpected close proximity to the handsome teen. She found herself instantaneously battling two polar opposite desires.

The first was to up and clock him across the face as hard as she possibly could for intentionally embarrassing the hell out of her. Seriously, the bastard had already heard her tell someone he was very much _just_ a "friend".

But unfortunately her body had other opinions on the matter, and it was instructing her to relax into his side, slip an arm around his neck and lean up and kiss him.

Actually…she was rather curious what his reaction would be to that. Since it probably was the last think he'd expect her to do. He didn't understand just how much his current form had an effect on her...

Still, as much as her body found the idea appealing, her mind was a little too pissed off to give in to that particular impulse at the moment.

"Oh, you're a lucky girl to find such a handsome guy. Must've had to search high and low to find him," the lady grinned.

Amara bit her tongue to keep from saying the first thing that came to mind: _No, the asshole dropped in uninvited and now I can't get away from him._ Instead she simply chuckled softly, deciding it was probably better to say nothing at all.

"Would you like me to put that on your tab dear?" the elderly clerk inquired.

"Yes, that would be wonderful, Grace. Thank you," she replied with a smile.

Then she smoothly slipped out from under the arm around her shoulders and made for one of the tables across the shop.

She was careful to pick a seat which faced out the window so that she wouldn't have to worry about keeping her expressions controlled.

As Envy sank into the seat across from her she glared blackly at him. This was so unfair. Every impulse commanded her to throw away her reservations and stare at him shamelessly. Those eyes…

She was _not_ going to slip into a daydream staring into them! Dammit all!

He flashed a grin and she felt her stomach swoop.

"Something wrong?" his tone was infuriatingly innocent.

"You asshole," she hissed, "If you weren't immortal I swear I would kill you here and now!"

"Amara. You're blushing," he pointed out with a smirk.

She made an infuriated sound. "I hate you! Change back _right now!"_ Her voice was low, but her tone did wonders to express the depths of her anger.

Envy raised his eyebrows. "Right here? In front of all these people? You know, something tells me that probably wouldn't go over well," he pointed out dryly. "Besides. This is way too much fun."

The smug tone of his voice made her itch to slap him.

He leaned forward, resting his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand. His expression was a typical, superiorly amused one, but in this form it had the unfortunate effect of triggering a multitude of butterflies in her stomach.

She leaned back in her chair to put distance between them.

"You know, if you keep staring at me like that, your elderly friend is going to think we're having a lover's spat."

Her eyes widened, and for a moment she almost lost control and smacked the smug expression right off his damn attractive face.

And then a thought occurred to her which caused the anger to drain away. A cool amusement trickled in to take its place.

"Alright jerk, two can play this game," she replied, before her expression changed completely and she leaned forward, resting her arms on the table as she gazed at him. In a matter of seconds she felt herself change from a barely controlled homicidal maniac, to a love struck teenage girl, her expression softening and gaze growing dreamy as she stared into his eyes. It really wasn't that difficult an act to pull off when this was how her body wanted to respond anyway…

His eyes widened slightly and he raised his eyebrows, clearly taken aback by the abrupt shift in mood. She felt a prick of satisfaction. This was what she'd anticipated. It was time to turn the tables.

But then a moment later his smirk returned in full, heart fluttering force.

"Just how far are you willing to take that act, hmm?" He leaned in much closer, his gaze filled with dark amusement.

Amara wanted to come up with a quick response, but she was suddenly unable to breathe with the distance between their faces suddenly so dramatically shortened. Even if she could breathe, the close proximity had driven every rational thought out of her mind. She'd assumed since she was just a "pathetic human" he would have quickly backed off in disgust. She really _hadn't_ expected him to call her bluff...

Although, as far as her body was concerned, it wasn't a bluff.

"Here you are my dears!" A cheerful voice shattered her absolute focus on the dark brown eyes in front of her.

She jerked back slightly as two clear bowls of dessert were set in front of them. They were really more like shallow glasses actually… Each had a spoon sticking out of it.

Envy's attention was instantaneously diverted to the chocolate creation before him.

Amara quickly recovered.

"Thank you Grace." She turned to smile after the lady who was already bustling away to another customer.

Relief crashed over her in a wave. If the elderly lady hadn't shown up when she had, she wasn't entirely sure what would have happened. All she knew was there was a good chance she would have lost control and things would likely have ended badly…

She glanced down at the parfait in front of her. She'd never actually had one before… she glanced at the homunculus across from her to see his eyes were shut in a contented, blissed-out expression as he savoured a mouthful of the frozen dessert.

"I can't believe you dragged me out here to buy you a parfait."

He cracked an eye open to stare at her a moment before swallowing the mouthful. Then he shrugged.

"What else are you good for?" He raised an eyebrow, actually sounding rather curious.

Her jaw dropped as an idea she really _didn't_ want to picture leapt into her mind.

"You…didn't just ask me that."

He really _really_ needed to _not_ stay in that form. Because she couldn't for the life of her get her brain out of the gutter.

He raised an eyebrow. "You're blushing again," he pointed out blandly, before eating another spoonful.

Her eyes narrowed and she glared daggers at him. Rather than dignifying that with a response, she turned her attention on the dessert in front of her. She grabbed the spoon and took a bite.

Her eyes widened as the flavor spread throughout her mouth.

"What?" Envy demanded, giving her a puzzled look.

She swallowed and then quickly took another bite, just to be sure. Yep. Wow. She swallowed that one to. Finally she fixed him with a flat look.

"I utterly despise you. But you have excellent taste in food."

He blinked, staring at her blankly for a moment. And then he slowly began to laugh. Not the usual cruel, mocking laughter; just normal, genuinely amused laughter.

She stared at him, a little stunned. She couldn't recall ever hearing him laugh like that.

Eventually he seemed to recover, although he was still grinning slightly.

"You are quite possibly the most bizarre human I have ever met."

She raised an eyebrow. "Uh…Thank you… I think…"

She watched him contently go back to eating his desert, feeling a little bewildered. What on earth was she going to do with this guy? His mood swings were starting to give her whiplash. She let out a sigh. Well…clearly she had another weapon to add to her arsenal. There were many different sorts of chocolate she suspected he would like. Maybe controlling him with bribes would work better than threats…


	6. Chapter 6

Amara drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, calming her anxious mind. She was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, finishing up the process of hair-styling and make-up. Rachel would definitely have comments to make if she showed up to find Amara in PJs, with bedhead and looking half-dead from lack of sleep. The nature of the comments would likely depend on the mood of the blonde girl, but Amara wasn't inclined to risk provoking her either way.

She leaned in and added the final touches of eyeliner before brushing her hair back from her face. The coppery waves had been relatively tamed, and now spilled past her shoulders in a less frizzy manner. The navy blue turtleneck she'd managed to dig out of the back of her dresser happened to bring out the blue in her eyes. It also had the handy effect of covering the bandage around her neck… She wasn't eager to try explaining the injury to her nosy friend. Her usual faded blue jeans completed the outfit.

She turned and left the washroom, making her way down the hall to the living room. She found Envy seated on the couch, starting on his second jar of Nutella. Mercifully he was back in his usual form, claiming he found it more comfortable.

"Are you sure you aren't Gluttony in disguise? You're going to make yourself sick." She frowned.

Envy snorted. "I already told you. Homunculi can't get sick. Which is just as well. You humans have sole proprietorship on looking and acting like pathetic weaklings."

Amara's eyes narrowed. "I hope you catch a cold while you're living here." Speaking of colds, she could feel the unpleasant hints of one coming on in her own body. After the poor sleep she'd been getting and then being dragged out into that blizzard, it wouldn't be overly surprising if she caught one. But she really couldn't afford to be sick right now. She had an exam to study for…

She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and automatically fished it out. It was likely Rachel letting her know why she was a half-hour late. It certainly wasn't an abnormal occurrence for her friend. She had a tendency of losing track of the time.

Amara unlocked the screen and her brow furrowed in puzzlement.

"Who is it this time?" Envy dipped the spoon back in the jar.

"It's my dad again," her tone was perplexed.

The homunculus raised an eyebrow. "What now?"

"Uhhh…" The coppertop stared blankly at the message for a moment, then frowned. "He wants to know if I know anything about metal prosthetics,"

Envy blinked. "…Like automail?"

"No idea..."

There was a light knock on the door and Amara jumped slightly. Apparently Rachel was finally putting in an appearance.  
Her father's out of the blue inquiries would have to wait.

She shot a look at Envy and he rolled his eyes, the telltale crackle of red energy appearing over his body. She whirled and strolled over to answer the door. It was a bit awkward to jerk open with the way it was wedged shut, but after a moment the girl on the other side of the door gave it a resounding shove and it swung inward violently, nearly knocking Amara off her feet. She staggered back and gave the blonde an unenthused look.

Her friend wore a beige, mid-length jacket, dark pants and knee high boots, her numerous piercings toned down to simple small studs-her typical work attire.

Rachel totally ignored the coppertop's silent rebuff and raised an eyebrow at the door. "What happened to that?"

"Uh…well umm…" Amara shifted uneasily.

"Somebody broke in."

The voice behind her made Amara jump. The shiver that ran through her at the sound of his voice told her he was definitely back in his Enver form. Rachel's eyes widened as she stared at the taller teen. Amara noticed, with rather mixed emotions, that her friend's reaction to the shapeshifter's current appearance mirrored her own. She could see a blush beginning to creep over the other girl's cheeks.

"You must be Rachel." Envy easily sidestepped the coppertop and offered a hand to the stunned looking blond.

"Uh...Yeah, that's me." She sounded ever-so-slightly flustered, reaching out to take the offered hand, probably assuming he intended a customary handshake. Instead, she gasped as the dark-haired young man bent slightly and raised her hand to his lips.

"I'm Enver." He smirked, then released her hand and straightened up again.

Amara's jaw dropped slightly as she stared at the disguised sin in shock. What… _the hell_ was he doing?!

"I-its nice to meet you." Rachel was now blushing quite blatantly.

"Why don't you come in?" Envy suggested, stepping back to allow her by.

Amara's jaw snapped shut and she shot him a slightly annoyed look. It was _her_ apartment, not his. What gave him the right to invite people in?

"Oh…thank you," the blonde replied, strolling slowly into the apartment as Envy easily shoved the door shut behind her. Amara winced at the sound of splintering wood, but Rachel didn't even appear to notice. She crossed the room to the love seat, quite at home in her friend's apartment.

Amara trailed after her and sank down on the cushion beside her friend. Seeing as there really wasn't anywhere else to sit, Envy leaned against the kitchen counter.

"So um, you said someone broke in?" Rachel's tone was slightly concerned and she finally glanced at her copper-haired friend.

"Oh, um, yeah. Well you see…" Amara trailed off, not sure where exactly to go with the story.

"When did it happen?" Rachel frowned, not seeming to notice her friend's uneasiness.

"This morning," Amara replied immediately. It was true…Envy had broken down the door that morning. She was suddenly tempted to make up a story about 'Enver' locking himself out, losing his temper and then breaking back in. Envy had clearly taken it into his head to make her eat her own words for telling her friend he was 'a total asshole,' so making him look like a short tempered idiot would thwart that nicely.

"Oh man, are you serious?" Rachel gasped, "What happened?"

Amara opened her mouth to reply but was smoothly cut off by Envy.

"I had to fight him off," he said matter-of-factly.

Rachel's eyes widened as her gaze moved to the disguised sin.

"You did? Is that how your neck got hurt?" She sounded awestruck.

Amara resisted the urge to face-palm. Envy hadn't bothered to cover up the bandage around his neck, leaving it visible even in his Enver form.

Envy nodded gravely. "Yeah, he had a knife. If I hadn't been here, I'm not sure what would have become of our poor little ginger brain," he shot the coppertop a clearly concerned look, but his eyes danced with infuriating amusement.

Amara's hands clenched into fists and she began counting to ten slowly in her head to keep from flying across the room and slapping him as hard as possible. That conniving bastard had planned this out from the start, just to piss her off.

"You fought off a guy with a knife?" Rachel's tone was curious. "You must have some martial arts training or something."

Amara saw Envy's lips twitch.

"A bit..."

"Wow…" Rachel's tone and expression were having an unpleasant effect on the emotions swirling in Amara's chest. The blonde really needed to stop staring at Envy like that. "How come you never mentioned Enver before?" Rachel turned an accusing gaze on her friend.

Amara blinked. "I dunno, it just never came up I guess…"

"Amara. You never even mentioned me? I'm hurt," Envy's expression grew rather injured.

Amara shot him a flabbergasted look. _Why_ was he doing this?!

Rachel rolled her eyes. "That's Amara for you. Never talks about stuff unless you intentionally drag it out of her."

"Why must you always exaggerate?" Amara muttered, shooting her friend an exasperated look.

"I'm sorry I'm late, by the way," Rachel said abruptly. "And unfortunately my appointment this evening got bumped up to an earlier time-slot so I have to leave right away too. But I wanted to see how you were managing." Her expression grew genuinely concerned. "You weren't looking too good the other day. How's the studying coming?"

Amara felt her expression deteriorate as a feeling of despairing defeat crept over her.

Rachel frowned. "I take it that means 'not good.' The depression's gotten worse, hasn't it?"

Amara's eyes widened slightly. Well…yes, it had grown a lot worse since they last discussed it. But Envy's arrival had thrown her world off-kilter so completely that she'd actually been too distracted to dwell on it much over the last two days. She'd almost forgotten about it, which was rather mind-blowing. Never before had something managed to distract her from a depression to this degree.

She shot a look at the sin leaning on her kitchen counter. Maybe she had something to thank him for after all. Then, with a prick of surprise she realized he had narrowed his eyes at her in a suspicious expression.

She frowned, puzzled. What was that about?

"Amara?" Rachel drew her attention once more.

"Oh…um…" She really wanted to blow her off with a reassuring smile and say she was fine but…she'd been doing that a lot lately. It was probably getting old. "Well…"

Rachel leveled a glare at her. "I knew you were lying. How bad is it?"

Amara shrank back slightly from the accusatory expression on her friend's face. She _really_ didn't feel like talking about this… She dropped her gaze to the floor, fighting an internal battle. Finally she sighed. She might as well just admit it.

"Bad," she muttered. It was a little different from previous depressions she'd had. It wasn't nearly as physically debilitating, which meant it was easier to work through; easier to act like she was just fine. But her mind was far from fine. The dark, disturbing thoughts and ideas that plagued her had been getting downright scary before Envy had crashed into her life. And she knew from experience that distractions, even friggin incredible ones, only worked for so long. The dangerous thoughts would be back-sooner rather than later given the unpleasant exam coming up.

Rachel grabbed Amara's shoulder, forcing Amara to face her. "Don't do anything stupid. You need to get some help," The blonde's expression was dead serious.

Amara sighed in exasperation. "What help? I'm on the highest dose of antidepressants I can take and they aren't working any more. There's nothing the doctor can do short of locking me up."

Rachel's expression grew pained. "I wish there was something I could do to help."

Amara smiled bemusedly. "You shouldn't worry so much. I've got lots of practice with this. I'll just keep on toughing it out. It'll be fine."

"Good grief. _You_ shouldn't be trying to comfort _me_ ," Rachel muttered, shaking her head. "All right. But you have to keep in touch! If you don't, I'll start coming over every day to check on you. Got it?"

Amara smiled half-heartedly. "Got it..."

Rachel's gaze moved back to Envy. "You know, I was skeptical at first, but I'm glad you're staying with her. Watch her like a hawk. Don't let her do anything we'll all regret," she ordered him severely.

Astoundingly, despite being given direct orders from a human, Envy nodded. He looked a little lost, but he was also still radiating suspicion. The gaze he leveled at her promised a number of questions once the blonde left. Amara wilted. This wasn't something she wanted to explain to _him_ of all people.

Rachel sighed. "Well… in any case… Hey do you guys want to go out for a drink at some point?" She asked abruptly. Her gaze was lingering on Envy again. Amara's eyes narrowed slightly. Her friend definitely wasn't going to leave this alone. Envy had gone and gotten her attention and now she was obviously very interested.

"Hmm. I'll have to get back to you on that," Amara said. "Between studying and…well…I just don't know if I'll be up to it..."

"It would probably be good for you to get out. Besides, you shouldn't keep your _friend_ ," she said the word with an odd tone, "cooped up in your apartment all the time. Seriously, he's going to get bored. No offense, but even you know you're ridiculously antisocial when you get like this."

Amara felt a wave of irritation. She was well aware of when Rachel was genuinely concerned about her, and when she was just interested in getting her own agenda met. And right now her agenda was definitely fixated on the young Turkish man leaning on the counter.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll let you know, ok?" Amara brushed her off.

"You better!" Rachel said, rising to her feet, "Listen, unfortunately I should probably get going. I wish I could stay longer,"

Amara resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Judging by the look she was giving Envy, the blond was probably kicking herself for scheduling an appointment that evening.

"That's ok, don't worry about it." Amara smiled brightly. Probably too brightly. But she didn't much care at that moment.

"And I'm clearly leaving you in capable hands with Enver, so I suppose I shouldn't worry too much," Rachel added thoughtfully.

Amara's expression froze, and she hastily worked to drag her mind back out of the gutter. _Ugh!_ _Whyyyy_ had he picked that form?! It was _killing_ her!

She heard a slight cough and levelled a glare at the sin, who appeared to be trying to keep from grinning.

"Hey Amara, could you walk down with me?" Rachel asked abruptly. Amara blinked in surprise.

"Umm, sure." She rose and followed after her friend to the door.

In an instant, Envy was there pulling the door open. Judging by the sound it made, Amara suspected neither her, nor Rachel, would have managed to get the thing open if they'd tried.

Rachel shot Envy a warm smile. "Take care of yourself." The flirtatious intent in her tone and gaze did astounding things to the odd feeling growing in Amara's chest.

What the heck was wrong with her? Rachel was just being Rachel. And it was _Envy_ for heaven's sake!

"Mmmhmm. Come back soon," he replied with a crooked smile. The swooping feeling inside her at that expression was marred by the unpleasant emotion that sprang up over the smile being directed at Rachel. He turned and his gaze met hers. Then his expression filled with a very knowing amusement. Heck, amusement didn't quite cover it. He was enjoying this _way_ too much. The bastard's whole goal with this had been to make her jealous. What a nasty, manipulative, sexy son of a bitch.

She _hated_ him!

She stormed out the door after Rachel, fuming silently. The two of them strolled down the hall in silence. When they stopped at the elevator Rachel turned to Amara curiously.

"Wow…that guy sure is something. I thought you said he was an asshole?"

Amara sighed. "He is when he chooses to be..."

"Do you know if he's got a girlfriend?" she inquired. Amara stared at her. She wasn't usually prone to physical violence against people (Well, unless they were Envy), but right now she was feeling sorely tempted.

"Umm, no, I don't. I doubt it."

"Hmm…he's so….wow. I can't believe you two aren't together. I mean he's gotta be your type!"

"Yeah…" Amara's tone was evasive.

"Well. if you don't want him then I think I'll try asking him out." Rachel sounded fairly confident.

Amara's eyes widened. "That's a bad idea."

The blond raised an eyebrow at her. "Why?"

Amara stared blankly at her for a moment, and then blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"He's gay."

The blonde's eyes widened. "What?! You're kidding me!"

"Nope." Perhaps it was untrue, but Amara really didn't care at that moment.

"Ugh. That's just so unfair…" Her friend's gaze dropped to the floor.

Amara let out a breath of relief. The way her friend's expression had crumpled in disappointment almost made her feel bad. But saying he was gay was easier than explaining that he was actually a mass-murdering psychopathic homunculus who usually wore the appearance of an androgynous palm-tree.

"Why are the best men taken, fictional or gay?" Rachel demanded.

Amara shrugged. "Life's just a bitch like that."

The blond gave her a flat look. "Easy for you to say. You haven't had a boyfriend for as long as I've known you, and you never talk about any ex's you might have."

"Because I have neither the time nor the energy to deal with any more drama in my life."

Seriously. She had enough problems with herself without adding another human-being to the mix...

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Whatever." When the elevator doors slide open with a ding, she strolled inside. "All right, well, I'll give you a call tomorrow okay?"

Amara nodded.

"And listen to Enver! You never take good enough care of yourself when you're down. I'm sure he's more than capable of looking after you. I hear gay guys are a lot more caring and sensitive."

Amara's eyes widened. The blond grinned at her and waved as the doors slide shut, blocking her from view.

Amara continued to stare at the shiny doors with a frozen expression.

Envy…caring and sensitive?

Could there possibly be a more contradicting description of the sin?

A giggle bubbled up in her chest and she began to laugh. More than capable of looking after her? Oh man. The _irony_. She was suddenly very glad Envy hadn't followed them to the elevator. She wasn't entirely sure how he would react to such a comment.

She made her way back down the hall and into her room to find Envy leaning on the counter again, back in his usual form. She shoved the door shut behind her a little awkwardly, wincing at the unpleasant aching feeling throughout her body. Clearly she needed some rest while her body fought off this bug.

Envy glanced at her and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" She was a little puzzled by the suspicion in his eyes.

"What was she talking about?" he demanded.

Amara frowned. "It's not important. And it's not any of your business anyway." She strolled over to the love seat and sank down to sit cross-legged.

"It's my business of I say it is," Envy snapped.

Amara raised her eyebrows. "Sheesh, what's gotten you all riled up?"

His eyes narrowed. "She told you not to do anything stupid and to 'get help'. Sounds like something life-threatening. What's life-threatening to you is life threatening to me," he pointed out sharply.

Well, that made sense.

She smirked bitterly. "It's only life threatening if I choose to make it that way. I'm depressed, not dying of cancer."

Envy raised an eyebrow, seeming unconvinced. Amara sighed, searching for a way to change the subject. She asked the first question that came to mind.

"So what exactly is your sexual orientation?"

Envy's eyes grew as wide as if she'd dumped a bucket of water over him out of the blue. "Excuse me?"

"Well, Rachel was going to ask you out, so I told her that you're gay. I'm just curious."

Envy's eyes widened even further as he stared at her. He didn't appear to know how to respond to such an unexpected admission. It was nice to see _him_ taken completely off-guard for a change. Then finally he seemed to recover. His expression grew slightly bemused, and he shook his head with a chuckle.

"Don't you think that's a stupid question?" A wicked smirk twisted his lips. Red energy crackled across his body and abruptly Amara found herself staring at an identical copy of herself. "I can have the best of both worlds," he told her smugly, his tone and expression rather alien coming from her own form.

Amara's eyes widened in shock and then she scrunched them shut in disgust. "Ugh, you pervert! Don't say stuff like that in my form!" She heard him chuckle with her voice and her eyes snapped open to glare at him. "Speaking of which, what the hell was up with you putting the moves on Rachel?!"

Envy's expression grew darkly amused and light crackled over him again. A moment later she found herself staring at the appealing form of Enver.

"Oooooh. You sound jealous."

Amara gasped. " _What?!_ I am not!"

"Ha!" Envy grinned, "Don't even try to bullshit me on this ginger brain. It's not gonna work."

Realization and embarrassment struck her at the same time. Ugh. This was _Envy_. If there was something he was an expert on, it was probably the sin he was named for.

Her eyes narrowed. "I hate you. Change back!"

Envy snickered. "I dunno. The way you react to his form is rather entertaining."

She sighed in exasperation. She felt a definite headache coming on and her whole body felt achy and tired. Not to mention it must have grown colder in her apartment because she was freezing.

"All right, whatever. I need to go study some more."

She rose stiffly and started across the room to the hallway, but was abruptly cut off by Envy. She just about collided with him, causing her to stagger back slightly in surprise.

"Oh no you don't. I've had more than enough of staring at the back of your head while you wallow in misery. Come up with something else." His tone didn't leave room for argument.

She stared at him in disbelief. "You know, contrary to what you believe, my purpose in life is _not_ to keep you entertained! I _need_ to study. Now move!"

He tisked at her disapprovingly. "Amara, Amara…keeping me entertained can be much more fun than trying to study..." He smirked, leaning in closer and invading her personal bubble.

She jerked back with a slight squeak. " _No thank you!_ I would much rather study. _"_

He chuckled, stepping forward and closing the space between them once again. The proximity of his ruggedly handsome face to hers was doing interesting things to the butterflies in her stomach.

"You are a terrible liar," he informed her dryly, the amused glint in his eyes making her shiver.

"Envy, taking advantage of me in that form is _not_ fair!" She hissed, glaring at him while her cheeks blazed.

"Whoever said I was fair?" he inquired, now leaning in close enough that his nose was brushing hers slightly, "If I have to take advantage of you to keep you from studying it's a small sacrifice to be made." His tone was smug, and part of her itched to reach up and slap him for it. Except a much larger part of her was itching to slide her arms around his neck and kiss him.

Conflicting desires… she seemed to get them a lot around this guy.

"I hate you," she whispered fiercely.

"Mmmhmm. I'm sure," he smirked. And then he raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly he raised his hand and pressed it against her forehead.

She jumped slightly at the unexpected contact. "What are you doing?"

His eyes narrowed accusingly. "You have a fever."

She blinked. "Oh…"

Well, that explained why she felt so awful.

He leaned back and regarded her suspiciously.

She frowned, "What?"

He opened his mouth to respond and then shut it. Now it was her turn to raise an eyebrow. What was up with him?

And then something occurred to her. She hadn't noticed it at first with his tanned skin, but he was actually flushed. And she somehow doubted he was blushing.

She reached towards him but he grabbed her wrist.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, eyes narrowed.

She rolled her eyes. "What do you think?" She reached up with her other hand and pressed it to his forehead. Her eyes widened. "You're burning up!"

His own eyes widened and he let go of her wrist. "That's not possible..."

Amara stared at him for a moment. He'd probably never been sick before, so he'd likely been ignoring the symptoms, not knowing what was causing them.

"What hurts me hurts you," she pointed out.

"You're saying I'm sick because _you're_ sick?!"

She frowned thoughtfully. "Actually. You probably aren't sick. I bet you're just experiencing the symptoms that my body is experiencing,"

"How does that change anything?!"

"Well…I suspect it means we don't have to worry about treating you. If I get better, you'll get better. So I should probably go try to sleep for a bit."

He continued to stare at her for several moments before shaking his head in exasperation. "This is absurd."

She snorted. "Welcome to my life."

She stepped stepped around him and headed for the bedroom. She was a little surprised when he followed after her.

She glanced back at him skeptically as she made her way over to her bed. "What are you doing?"

He stood in the doorway watching her. "Making sure you actually sleep instead of studying. You damn well had better recover quickly."

She raised her eyebrows. "...Right. I'll get right on that." She pulled back the sheets and slipped under them. She felt so achy and tired…blah… If she wasn't so fuzzily sick feeling she'd probably take exception to Envy standing there watching her fall asleep.

But she really didn't give a damn at that moment.


	7. Chapter 7

_"_ _Ah, good. You're sick. It'll be a wonderful experience for him. Try to stay that way for a while." The inhuman voice sounded pleased._

 _"_ _You have_ got _to be kidding me!" Amara clenched her hands into fists and glared daggers at the white humanoid._

 _"_ _But you really shouldn't have given your subjugation powers away so easily. It'll be much harder to teach him manors without those." The Truth sounded disapproving._

 _"_ _I don't think it's possible to teach that jerk manors..."_

 _"Y_ _ou'll certainly have an interesting time of it now. I hope you're prepared to face whatever he does now that you lack control over him."_

 _"_ _Well, I don't completely lack control over him." Amara pointed to her neck._

 _"_ _What will you do if he restrains you in such a way that you are unable to injure yourself?" Truth inquired._

 _The coppertop paled. She hadn't thought of that._

 _The humanoid sighed. "You really shouldn't be so impulsive. Luckily, Envy will likely be more debilitated by the sickness than you, since he is unused to experiencing such symptoms. But once you're better again you'll have your hands full. Especially given he has almost complete control over you in a certain form…"_

 _Amara let out a squeak of outrage. "_ _He does_ not _have complete control over me! He doesn't have_ any _control over me!"_

 _"_ _You just keep telling yourself that," Truth sighed._

 _Amara blinked at his uncharacteristic tone, and then frowned. "_ _Why are you so out of character?"_

 _The humanoid grinned alarmingly. "_ _Whoever said I was constrained by the perceptions you humans have of my character? I am Truth. I can be however I choose."_

 _"_ _...You're annoying, you know that?"  
_

 _"_ _Now Amara, it sounds like Envy is rubbing off on you. I hope you realize it's supposed to be the other way around."_

 _"_ _Look, I don't know what delusions you have about my power of creating miracles, but there's no way in hell I'm going to rub off on that envious little worm-like creature." She crossed her arms, staring at it flatly._

 _The Truth hummed. "_ _You'd be surprised. As long as he's tied to you he is much more influenced by your feelings and beliefs than you realize. Of course, once I sever the connection, he may very well return to his normal self. I rather hope that isn't the case however…"_

 _"_ _If he bugs you so much, why not just blast him out of existence?" Amara inquired._

 _"_ _Because that defeats the purpose of allowing him to being created in the first place."_

 _Amara raised a quizzical eyebrow. Was that supposed to make sense?_

 _"_ _In any case," Truth continued, "I doubt he'll be much use in taking care of you while you're sick. In fact, you might have to take care of him."_

 _"_ _You're kidding…right?"  
_

 _"_ _No. Envy's never been very good at toughing things out," it replied dryly._

 _Amara stared at the creature. "_ _Do you have any idea how unfair this is? I can't afford to be sick right now. I need to be studying for that exam! And that idiot you've dumped on me won't let me!"  
_

 _"_ _If you hadn't given away your subjugation powers then that wouldn't be an issue. It isn't my problem that you didn't think things through," the Truth sounded unconcerned._

 _Amara growled. "_ _You're such a pain!"_

 _"_ _Yes," the white humanoid hummed thoughtfully, "The truth hurts… or so I've heard you humans say."  
_

 _Amara rolled her eyes. And then she blinked in confusion as her vision began to grow fuzzy. "_ _Wait…what…?"_

 _"_ _It's time for you to wake up now. I believe Envy is in need of attention."_


	8. Chapter 8

Amara's eyes snapped open.

Judging by the low light levels streaming in from the window, it was nearing dusk. She was lying on her side. And, much to her alarm, she felt something warm against her back. With a hoarse yelp she rolled away and sat up, staring down at the palm-tree-like hair poking out from under the covers.

" _Envy!"_ Her throat complained vehemently over the hoarse shout, but she didn't care. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

He gave a muffled grunt and the partly-exposed head slipped farther under the covers. She frowned in puzzlement. The homunculus was completely bundled up. He'd even stolen most of the blankets off of her side of the bed.

"Umm…are you ok?" She leaned closer and pulled at the covers slightly, trying to expose his face. "Hey, what's wrong?"

He clung to the sheets stubbornly, but she eventually managed to strip them away, revealing a palm-tree haired homunculus that looked so miserable she actually felt sorry for him. His eyes were shut tightly, his arms hugged close to himself as shivers wracked his form. There was a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead and his cheeks were flushed. Any remaining anger over his invasion of her sleeping area drained away. The poor guy probably felt like he was freezing to death with the chills from the fever.

She rested a hand on his shoulder and gently shook him. "Envy, you need to wake up. I can give you some stuff to help you feel better."

Slowly his eyes blinked open. The purple irises and slit pupils had an uncharacteristic glazed look to them. He turned his head and his gaze slowly focused on her. "Why do I feel like this?" His voice came out just as raspy as hers.

"You're sick," she told him carefully.

He stared at her for a minute before another violent shiver ran through him and his head sank back against the pillow. She sighed. She didn't feel a heck of a lot better than he did. Her head was pounding and her throat felt raw. And damn was it ever cold in her apartment! She wanted some of those covers Envy had stolen. She felt a slight shiver run through herself. Well, at least her stomach didn't feel sick. And actually, on that note, neither of them had had any supper. Maybe Envy didn't need any, but it probably wouldn't hurt him to have some hot soup.

She gently shook his shoulder again. "Envy, you need to get up and come with me."

He pulled the covers tighter around himself with a muffled moan.

She rolled her eyes. "You can bring the covers with you. Come on. Don't let yourself be outdone by a human." With any luck, the dig would touch on his pride, even in spite of the illness. Mustering her own strength, she slipped out of bed and padded across the room to the door. Then she glanced back at him expectantly.

Finally she saw his form shift and then slowly sit up. After a moment he slid out of bed and slowly followed after her, easily pulling all of the covers off the bed as he went, including the large, fluffy comforter. She felt a prick of relief.

There was no way in hell she could drag him if he chose to ignore her.

She headed into the kitchen and pulled open one of the cupboards where she kept some medication. Aspirin would likely help with the fever, although she wasn't entirely sure if it would work for a homunculus. Well…if they both took it then hopefully one way or another it would help. She filled two glasses of water from the tap and dumped out two extra strength pills. She grabbed one, turning and handing it to Envy, who had shuffled up behind her.

"Here, swallow these with the water. It'll help with the fever," she told him. He stared at them for a moment before he obeyed. She popped her own pils into her mouth and swallowed it down. "Alright, why don't you curl up on the couch? I'm going to make us some soup," she said, turning to grab a pot from under one of the cupboards. After a moment, the somewhat dazed homunculus obeyed, shuffling over to the couch and sinking down amidst his train of blankets.

Amara filled the pot with water and set it on the stove to boil. She got out two mugs to pour the soup into when it was finished, and then stared numbly at the counter for a moment, shivering. _Ugh_. Her head felt like it was going to explode. Being sick sucked. She turned and headed over to the thermostat on the wall beside the door and cranked up the heat. Feeling chilled was one of her least favorite things. After staring at the little box glumly for a moment, she decided it would be a while before the action had any noticeable effect. She headed back over to the pot and waited for the water to boil.

Ten minutes later she poured the steaming Lipton broth into the mugs and carried them carefully over to the coffee table.

"Alright, these are really hot so we should probably let them cool a bit," she rasped, then coughed on the tickle in her throat. Envy made no response, continuing to sit and stare at the floor while he shivered. She sighed, the feeling of aching fatigue dragging her limbs. Standing was more than she felt up to. _Oh what the hell..._ She plodded across the room and flopped down next to the green-haired sin, pulling some of his blankets over her shoulders.

Abruptly he leaned over and slid his arms around her, pulling her as close to him as possible, meaning she was just about in his lap.

" _Envy!_ " She squawked, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"You're warm," his hoarse voice came out almost as a whimper. She wanted to violently protest, but nothing in his demeanor suggested that he was intentionally trying to make her uncomfortable. He just seemed absolutely miserable. She could feel him shivering against her and felt a prick of sympathy for the pitiful looking creature.

"...Alright… But I don't really appreciate being treated as a human hot water bottle," she muttered half-heartedly. His only response was to tighten his hold around her and rest his head against hers.

For a moment she felt awkwardly tense with the situation. She definitely hadn't pegged Envy as the cuddly type. Then again, she'd never seen him quite this miserable either. Still, being cuddled by something a hundred times stronger and heavier than her, not to mention something _much_ more maliciously twisted than her, was decidedly unnerving. And there really wasn't anything she could do about it. She wouldn't be able to squirm out of his grasp if she tried, and she lacked to energy to bother making an attempt. Another shiver ran through her and she let out a resigned sigh, admitting defeat and relaxing in his grip. At least she was getting the same benefit from this that he was-warmth.

"When am I going to start feeling better?" Envy mumbled.

Amara felt a smile tug at her lips. "Whenever I start feeling better I guess…I've got a pretty sturdy immune system so I don't usually stay sick long." Granted, the way her voice was rasping didn't make the statement all that convincing. She felt him hum tiredly against her hair. He actually seemed to be dozing off. Not that this meant he'd lessened his hold on her any. Obviously she wasn't going to be going anywhere until he decided he no longer needed his own personal heater. But she was too tired to feel irritated by it. Maybe he had the right idea. Going back to sleep sounded good.

* * *

For the first time in several days Truth chose not to take control of her dreams. Unfortunately this only meant that she was plagued by nightmarish fever dreams. A particularly unpleasant one sent her bolting awake, eyes flying open with a gasp.

The room was just about pitch black. Judging by the howling of the wind outside it was still blizzarding, which covered most of the light that the streetlights of the city usually provided through the living room window. In her rattled state of sudden wakening, the feeling of something around her securing her in place sent a wave of panic through her. She began to struggle blindly for a moment, mind scrambling to make sense of what was going on. She almost managed to break loose from whatever it was when it abruptly tightened around her, constricting much of her movement.

"What are you doing?" the sleepy voice sounded annoyed.

Amara drew in a sharp breath. "Envy...?" Realization dawned on her. Right…they'd fallen asleep on the couch. Apparently he still hadn't let go of her yet. "What are you still holding onto me?"

"Because I'm still cold," he replied flatly. His voice was still decidedly hoarse sounding. Amara frowned. Her head was still throbbing slightly and her throat felt like sandpaper, but the chills had eased off and she wasn't aching as much all over-which led her to believe that the fever had receded. Except that Envy was still radiating heat like a furnace and she could still feel him shivering slightly. She carefully reached up a hand in the dark, following his shoulder up to his neck and face till she found his forehead.

"You're still burning up," she whispered. "But that doesn't make any sense... Why would you still have a fever if I don't…?"

There was only one possibility she could think of. He wasn't just experiencing her symptoms. He was actually, genuinely sick. Perhaps her own body getting sick had given the virus access to Envy's body somehow…and while her immune system was used to fighting off colds and flu's relatively quickly, Envy hadn't ever been sick before. Which meant that his immune system likely wasn't particularly strong. She frowned. Envy was supposed to be immortal right? Well… as immortal as a character could be anyway. So surely he'd be just fine…

A doubt crept into the back of her mind. What if because the virus had accessed him through her, his powers refused to work to fight it off? Was he in actual danger of dying?

She shook her head. It was better to deal with one thing at a time. For the moment, she doubted he was in any life threatening danger.

"Envy, if you let me get up, I can go reheat that soup for you. It'll help you warm up," she promised. His grip around her tightening further was his only response. She winced slightly. This was getting a little too snug for her liking... "Envy, please. I'm trying to help you feel better," her voice took on a pleading edge.

"No," he replied mulishly.

Amara let out an exasperated sigh. "You're such a stubborn idiot! If you don't let me help you, you're going to be sick and miserable for longer than you need to be!"

She felt him shift slightly beside her. "I thought you said I would get better when you got better?" he sounded slightly suspicious.

"Well…umm…"

"What?" he demanded.

"My fever's receded but yours has gotten worse, so…that must mean you're genuinely sick too. You aren't just experiencing my symptoms..."

"That isn't possible," there was an edge to his voice.

Amara couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Well obviously it is, since you're clearly sicker than I am." An uncomfortable silence followed. She wilted slightly. "Look, I'll go reheat the soup and get you some medicine and then if you want me to I'll come back and sit with you." She sounded resigned.

There was another brief silence.

"Promise?" he asked.

She gave his outline an odd look. "Uh…sure…but you could just grab me and force me to sit with you anyway, you know." As soon as the words left her lips she wanted to bite them back. Why on earth would she say something so _stupid_? The last thing he needed was encouragement to force her into things!

"I don't want to move," he mumbled, sounding rather miserable.

Amara stared at him for a moment before sighing. Evil or otherwise, she couldn't help but feel bad for something that felt that awful. Heck, she'd hated watching his death scene in Brotherhood despite not particularly liking him to begin with.

"All right, I'll be right back. But you've gotta let go first," she told him gently. She heard him huff irritably, but his grip on her loosened and he finally released her.

She rose stiffly to her feet, feeling aches and pains through her body from falling asleep in such an unusual position. Surely to heavens there was a more comfortable way of doing this... Then a thought occurred to her and she winced. Sick or otherwise, she wasn't a fan of the idea of crawling into bed with the homunculus… The idea alone felt very weird.

She made her way carefully across the room in the dark until she found a light switch. Flicking it on, she squinted past the blinding brightness and began hunting in the kitchen cupboards. After a moment she found was she was looking for-a box of Neocitrin. She hated the stuff, but other than Tylenol she didn't have any other cold medication in the house. At least the unpleasant liquid covered more symptoms than the Aspirin did... She flicked on the electric kettle on the counter and set about making a new package of soup. The cold cups sitting on the coffee table probably only had mush for noodles at this point.

A short while later she had four steaming mugs sitting on the counter in front of her. Two of them smelled rather unpleasantly of lemon. Steeling herself, she grabbed the two lemon scented ones and headed back into the living room where the bedraggled looking homunculus was waiting for her.

"Alright," she said, coming to a halt in front of him, "Before you grab me again you need to drink this and you need to drink your soup."

"What is that?" he asked, making an unimpressed face at the smell coming from the mugs.

"It's disgusting," she told him bluntly. "But it _will_ make you feel better, and I have to drink it too so it's not just you suffering through it." When he regarded her skeptically, she sighed. "Do you want to feel better or not? Hell, it's not like I'm trying to poison you. Something tells me that would be counterproductive."

He raised an eyebrow, but reluctantly extended a hand forward from under its cocoon of blankets and took one of the mugs.

"Be careful! It's hot," she warned as he raised it to his lips.

He took a small sip and then his expression twisted in a grimace. "What _is_ this stuff?"

She carefully sank down on the edge of the loveseat, as far from the sick sin as she could manage. "It's called Neocitrin. What it lacks in flavour it makes up for in effectiveness…At least…it does for me anyway. It doesn't always affect everyone the same way." She felt a slight prick of unease at the thought. It usually made her drowsy and then the next day she felt quite a bit better. But Rachel, on the other hand, got buzzed off the stuff and it didn't really do much for her. Amara winced at the thought. Hopefully it would have the _latter_ effect on the homunculus. A buzzed Envy wasn't something she had the energy for at this point.

"Why is it so damn hot?" he grumbled. "At least if it was a reasonable temperature you could drink it quickly and get it over with."

"You've got a point there... But the hot will help warm you up," she pointed out.

"Assuming I manage to drink it in the first place. You humans make such disgusting medication." He scowled down at his mug.

Amara smirked slightly. "Considering this is only the second human medication you've ever tried, I think you might be jumping to conclusions." Then she glanced down at her own mug, bracing herself for the inevitable.

Fifteen minutes later Envy set his empty soup mug down on the coffee table next to his empty Neocitrin mug. Amara had already finished both of hers, since she was use to drinking the unpleasant medication at scalding hot temperatures as quickly as possible. She eyed the homunculus uncertainly. He had a rather heavy lidded look to his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, a concerned edge to her voice. She had ended up moving closer to him on the couch to get under the blankets with him. Her chills had come back, making her wonder if maybe she wasn't getting better as fast as she'd thought.

He glanced at her, and her feeling of unease grew. His eyes had an odd, glazed over appearance, leading her to wonder if he was really 'all there' at the moment… Apparently the medication was already having a significant effect on him. She shifted nervously, starting to pull away from him. Maybe if he was drugged like this she could actually get away and lock herself in her room. His eyes widened as the realization that she was trying to leave sunk into his apparently slow-moving , he moved blindingly quickly, grabbing her and swinging her up, firmly pinning her down on the love seat. She let out a yelp as she was partially crushed. How on earth had he moved that fast?! He'd basically lifted her up and slammed her into the cushions, partially knocking the wind out of her. He was practically lying on top of her. They barely fit on the small couch, their feet hanging off the end slightly.

"Envy!" she gasped, having difficulty taking normal breaths with his weight on her chest. He stared down at her with his slit pupils still strangely out of focus. Then he seemed to come to the conclusion that he'd satisfactorily trapped his personal heater in place. He relaxed, lowering his head to rest against her shoulder while his arms remained locked around her like iron bars.

"Oh no…no way…don't you dare fall asleep now! Envy, _get off_!" she wheezed, half wondering if her ribs were going to crack under the weight of his now limp form. His breathing grew slow and even and his eyes were shut.

Dammit all he'd gone and fallen asleep on top of her!

This was so _not_ ok. Hell, it was friggin uncomfortable for one. His arms under her back felt as hard and unyielding as bricks. On top of which, a lock of his palm-tree-like hair had fallen forward and was tickling her face. Secondly, he was invading her personal bubble about as much as physically possible short of trying to rip her clothes off. It didn't matter that he was drugged out of his mind and just in search of warmth. She was going to tear him to shreds when she finally managed to get out from under him. As it was, she wasn't going anywhere until he woke up. Even with his arms limp, the weight of his body was more than enough to keep her pinned in place.

She let out a defeated moan. _Why me?_

Needless to say it was a _very_ long night. Envy didn't budge a muscle the entire time. It was like he'd turned into a slowly breathing rock. She slipped in and out of light dozes, but it was difficult to sleep when one felt this uncomfortable. Granted, the lack of oxygen from her crushed lungs did help with slipping into unconsciousness. Slowly, painfully slowly, the light from the window grew stronger. Apparently the storm had eased off throughout the night and the snow was falling much lighter now. From where she was pinned she couldn't see the clock on the microwave, and she couldn't remember if she'd bothered to check the time when they'd first woken up anyway. Either way, it seemed to take _forever_ for the sun to creep above the horizon, little by little. Eventually the room was bathed in the pale, grey morning light of winter. She could tell from the color that it was going to be a dreary, overcast day.

Despite this, Envy didn't even stir. She felt a wash of despair and her eyes slipped shut. Not only was she uncomfortable, but after another night of terrible sleep, she felt downright awful again. Apparently Neocitrin could only do so much if the body wasn't given proper rest. Despite the warmth of the homunculus on top of her she felt chills trying to creep into her body, and her head was throbbing as fiercely as ever. And she was _so_ unbelievably tired now. Even if Envy suddenly let her go, she didn't think she'd have the energy to go anywhere.

Then, _finally,_ she felt movement on top of her. The homunculus shifted ever so slightly, and then his arms slipped out from under her as he raised his head and propped himself up slightly. She felt a wash of relief in her chest as much of the weight was removed from it and she was able to breathe relatively freely once more. Her eyelids flickered open tiredly and she saw him staring down at her. His eyes seemed clear and back to normal again, and the flush had disappeared from his cheeks. He actually looked quite a bit better. There was a puzzled expression on his face and he raised an eyebrow.

"How did we end up like this?"

Her eyes widened, then narrowed in anger. "You friggen grabbed me and pinned me here you jerk. Don't you remember?" she demanded, hostility radiating from her despite her fatigue. Or perhaps _because_ of her fatigue. Her throat was still painfully raspy.

He blinked at her for a moment, and then frowned thoughtfully before shaking his head. "No, I don't. The last thing I remember is crawling in bed next to you to get warm," he told her frankly.

She stared at him for a moment before wilting. "Please, _please_ don't ever fall asleep on top of me again," she whimpered.

He blinked, and then a slight smirk began to pull at his lips. "That bad huh?"

"Do you have any idea how heavy you are? I'm amazed I didn't suffocate."

He snorted, and then a look of dark amusement crept over his face. "You're just lucky I didn't have any dreams," he smirked darkly.

She gave him a disturbed look. "Why exactly…?"

"Because you might not have woken up in one piece." He chuckled.

Her eyes widened dramatically. " _What_?" It came out as a rather pathetic squeak.

He shook his head in amusement, choosing not to answer. Instead he slowly sat up, shifting so he was sitting on the edge of the couch, off of her legs. She drew in a deep breath of relief, savoring the feeling of freedom.

"Well, I don't know what happened last night but I feel way better," he commented, eyeing the mugs on the coffee table curiously.

"You're welcome," Amara muttered, "I feel awful…" Her whole body throbbed. She suspected she felt just about as miserable as Envy had the previous night.

The green haired sin glanced at her. "You look terrible."

"Gee…I wonder why…" her tone was caustic.

He glanced at the four mugs and then back at her. "If you had the same medicine as me then why are you still sick?" he sounded puzzled.

"Because _somebody_ kept me up all night."

He hummed thoughtfully. "You should make some coffee."

She shot him an incredulous look before letting out a pained chuckle. "Sorry buddy. I think you broke your personal servant. I'm not sure I can stand right now."

He frowned at her, clearly finding this to be a nuisance."You can't seriously be that weak."

She felt a spark of outrage and managed to sit up slightly in her wave of fury. "Look here, palm-tree. You might not remember last night, but you were a hell of a lot worse off than I am now. So don't get all patronizing calling me weak! You're the one who passed out on me all night!"

His eyes narrowed slightly. "I would never stoop as low as to be as weak as you," he retorted.

The anger bubbling up inside of her had her practically on the edge of tears. "You asshole!" Unfortunately, the hoarseness of her voice took away much of the insult's venom. She forced herself into a seated position and her head spun. "Get over here, dammit all. I'm going to beat the living daylights out of you!" She wanted to full out tackle him and tear him apart, but she barely managed to jerk forward in an attempt to claw at his arm.

He easily caught her wrist in his hand and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Boy. You really are weaker than before."

"I hate you," her growl sounded more like a whimper and her eyes slipped shut. Her head was spinning and pounding to the point where she almost felt sick to her stomach. She heard him sigh.

"Well you aren't much good to me like this," he muttered, "And I'm stuck with you," his tone was rather disgusted.

A moment later she felt movement beside her and she was abruptly scooped up. Her eyes snapped open with a gasp as she found herself slung over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?! Stop it!" Being partly upside down was doing no favors for her head or stomach. "Envy, please put me down," she pleaded, hating how pathetic she sounded. She could practically hear him roll his eyes as he set off towards the hallway. He strolled down the hall and into her bedroom before walking over to the bed and dropping her unceremoniously onto the bare mattress.

"Oww," she complained, shifting slightly to a more comfortable position but not bothering to sit up or look around. Her whole body was protesting the less than gentle treatment. She heard him leave the room and return a moment later.

A pile of blankets landed on her abruptly.

"Oomph," she struggled weakly under the rather weighty mass of covers. She managed to find the edge and push them away from her head awkwardly. She glanced around wearily and met Envy's gaze.

"Hurry up and get better." He glowered down at her, arms crossed.

She blinked at him slowly before letting herself go limp against the mattress. "Why don't you just kill me now and put me out of my misery," she muttered, staring dully at the wall.

He sighed in exasperation. She heard him stroll out of the room and moment later her eyes slipped shut. After such a long and unpleasant night she slipped into unconsciousness almost immediately.

She woke some time later to someone shaking her shoulder. She blinked blearily, wondering why he could possibly want her to wake up.

"Drink this," Envy ordered, thrusting a mug in front of her face. She stared at it dumbly for a moment and then wrinkled her nose as the scent of lemon wafted over her. She pushed herself up slightly, giving him an odd look.

"You made me Neocitrin?" she was definitely puzzled. How had he figured out how to use the kettle?

"Well, it worked for me, so obviously it should work for you."

She frowned slightly. "But…why? I don't understand…"

He gave her a flat look. "Because you're bloody boring when you're like this and I'm tired of waiting around."

She stared at him for a moment. Well…that sounded plausible. Either way, it couldn't hurt to drink some more of the awful stuff. She reached out and took the mug carefully. Then she blinked. It was cold. _Well then..._ Obviously he hadn't figured out how to work the kettle after all.

She held her breath and drank the cool syrupy liquid down as quickly as possible. Swallowing the last of it with a grimace, she handed him back the mug.

"Good. Now sleep," he ordered flatly.

"As you wish, my lord," she muttered, heavy sarcasm lacing the words. Slowly, she sank back down against the pillows and closed her eyes.

She was asleep before she even heard him walk away.


	9. Chapter 9

When Amara rose to consciousness again she felt a warm, contented feeling throughout her body. The pounding headache had disappeared and she was rather glued to the mattress in relaxation. Her eyelids flickered open to morning light streaming in the window again. She frowned slightly. Clearly she'd been asleep for a while, so did that mean she'd slept all day and all night into the next day? She pondered this for a moment before an unpleasant dropping sensation shot through her stomach.

How many days did she have left before the exam?

She poured over the last few days in her mind and then felt a wash of panic. The exam was the day after tomorrow! She sat bolt upright in bed, panting slightly. Her gaze darted around the room. Then it occurred to her to wonder where exactly the homunculus had gotten to.

"Envy?" she called uncertainly. There was no answer. She frowned. Had he broken his promise and run off? "Envy, come here."

After several moments of silence, her frown deepened. Where on earth was he? Slowly, she slid out of bed, stretching her stiff limbs and grimacing over the uncomfortably rumpled state of her jeans and turtleneck. She tugged at her own sleeve and cast a glance around the room. Then froze. Her laptop was missing from the desk.

Her eyes widened slightly. What the hell? If he had done something to her laptop there would be hell to pay. She needed it for studying!

She hastened down the hall. When she spied him seated on the couch in the living room, relief crashed over her. But the feeling followed by puzzlement. The laptop sat in front of him on the coffee table and he had an absolutely horrified look on his face. He appeared frozen in place, eyes wide with something very like horror.

She blinked several times. "Envy?"

He didn't move, or even blink. Raising an eyebrow, she crossed the room and sank down next to him carefully. She peered at the laptop screen and a single word jumped out that caught her eye that made her throat constrict. " _ **Edvy**."_ She slowly glanced at the homunculus next to her. He still hadn't moved. Swallowing nervously, she reached out and snapped the laptop closed. Envy blinked as if suddenly released from a spell. He turned to stare at her, expression still disturbed.

She raised her eyebrows. "Why were you reading fanfiction?"

He stared at her for a moment before he finally spoke. "What. The _hell_. Is wrong with you humans?" his voice was a little hoarse.

She raised her hands a little defensively. "Don't lump me in with Edvy fans. I don't get off on yaoi. But seriously, look at yourself. You're practically begging for it by picking such a girly form."

He continued to stare at her.

Finally she rolled her eyes. "Why are you so bothered by this? I thought you said you 'enjoyed the best of both worlds'?"

He blinked slowly before his expression grew exasperated. "I don't care about _that_. Why the hell would they pair me with the _pipsqueak_?!" his voice cracked slightly, "What the fuck? How is there anything appealing about the little blonde runt?!" He glared at her.

Amara's own eyes widened and she stared at him in blankly, trying to wrap her head around his reaction. Finally she managed to find her voice. "Ok let me get this straight…you aren't upset over being painted as gay. You're just upset about getting paired with Edward?"

He nodded stiffly, still glaring at her. She continued to stare at him, an odd expression on her face. Finally he raised an eyebrow. "What?" he sounded slightly defensive. "I'm a shapeshifter. I'm not constrained by sexuality."

She slowly nodded. "Right..." The word came out a little squeaky. "Well, I hate to break it to you but as far as I can tell, Edvy is pretty much your most popular pairing."

His eyes narrowed further and he growled slightly.

She leaned away from him nervously. "Don't take it out on me. I don't even write fanfiction!" The way he was glaring at her was making her supremely uncomfortable. Then she saw his gaze move to her laptop. She gasped. "Don't you dare!" she cried, leaping up swiftly.

He shot her an irritated look. "What?" he snapped.

She scooped up her laptop, cradling it protectively. "Don't take it out on my laptop."

His expression darkened and he rose as well. "Why don't I just take it out on you then?"

She shivered slightly, taking a step back. "Don't you think that'd be kind of counterproductive?"

He continued to glare at her and took a step forward. She took another step back and he continued pressing forward. A moment later he had backed her up against the wall near the front door. She hugged the laptop tighter and cringed slightly at the hostility radiating from the green haired sin.

At that moment the telephone on the wall near her head blared out a ring, causing her to flinch. Envy's glare flicked to the telephone and she could've sworn she heard him give a resigned sigh before reaching out and picking it up.

Amara's eyes widened. Was he seriously going to answer her phone?

"Hello?" he pressed the phone to his ear. She felt a surprised thrill to hear Enver's voice coming out of his lips. She watched his expression grow to a slow smile and felt a prick of unease.

"Rachel. Yes, this is Enver," he replied to a voice on the other end of the line. Amara frowned, clinging to her laptop one-handed and reaching out in an attempt to snatch the phone away from him. He easily caught her wrist in his free hand, smirking tauntingly at her. "That sounds like fun. We'd love to join you," he said.

"What?" she hissed, eyes widening.

"Oh Amara was sick yesterday, actually. She was in bed most of the day. She's doing much better today, though," he explained gravely. Then his smirk returned in full force. "Yeah, I'll be sure to do that," he replied, tone ever so slightly smug. Amara gritted her teeth in consternation. What on earth were the two of them talking about? "Alright, sounds good. We'll see you around seven then," he said. Then he pulled the phone away from his ear and hung it up.

"What the hell?" Amara demanded.

Envy smirked. "I've been ordered to take _very_ good care of you."

Amara glared flatly at him. "Not funny. What did you agree to go to at seven?"

He snorted. "We're going out for drinks to the usual bar that the two of you go to. Wherever that is." he turned away and strolled back into the living room.

"What?! I am _not_ taking you out for drinks! No way in hell!"

"Unfortunately for you, I'm not giving you a choice in the matter." Envy glanced at her sidelong. "Your apartment is boring. I want to see more of your world."

Amara stared at him flabbergasted."No way! I can't trust you not to get us into trouble!"

He grinned at her. "You're right. You can't."

"I'm not taking you anywhere!" she spat, glaring daggers at him.

He rolled his eyes. "Either you come willingly, or I'll drag you there by force. And don't you think it would be rather difficult to explain to your friend why I'm dragging you to the bar bound and chained?" His tone was suspiciously innocent.

She stared at him for several moments. Then finally she hissed, "I hate you," before turning and storming down the hall to her room.

She returned the laptop to its desk and sank into the computer chair, resting her head in her hands. What on earth was she going to do? She needed to study! But at this point it was starting to look like a lost cause. She'd barely touched the final unit, let alone reviewed everything she needed to. The thought of going to an exam without having learned all of the appropriate material was mind-boggling. On a course like this, it sealed her fate. She'd never pass at this point. A crushing wave of despair washed over her. She was totally screwed...

Her cellphone buzzed on the desk. She glanced at it distractedly. Why was her dad suddenly texting her so frequently? Then again, she'd never responded to his last cryptic question. But really, why did he think she would know anything about prosthetics? She couldn't fathom where the topic would even come from. With a resigned sigh she snatched up the phone and opened the message.

 _Amara…would you ever consider babysitting?_

The coppertop stared down at the phone blankly. She was starting to wonder if someone had stolen her father's phone and started prank texting her. Fullmetal Alchemist, prosthetics and babysitting… What the hell?

"You aren't planning on studying all day, are you ginger brain?" Envy called from the living room, effectively distracting her from her father's mysterious communications.

She let out a low growl of frustration. "Leave me alone you jerk! I'm going to fail this exam because of you!"

"Then why are you bothering to study?" Envy appeared at the bedroom door, a skeptical expression on his face.

Amara wilted. "I don't know…"

"So what are you going to do to keep me amused?" Envy crossed his arms and leaned on the door frame.

She shot him a dark look. "I dunno. Maybe I'll go find a flame thrower and attempt to re-enact your death scene."

His expression slipped into a flat glare. "Not funny."

Amara snorted. "Maybe not …but it'd be immensely satisfying."

Envy rolled his eyes. "You couldn't kill someone if your life depended on it."

Amara cocked her head thoughtfully. "I think it would depend on the situation..."

"Whatever. You still haven't answered my question."

Amara stared at him. He wasn't going to let this drop. And blowing up and attacking him hadn't worked very well last time… She might as well just give up on the idea of studying. It clearly wasn't going to happen. But how was she supposed to entertain him…?

"How do you feel about board games?" she asked uncertainly.

He raised an eyebrow. "No."

Amara frowned, chewing her lip thoughtfully. "How about a movie and popcorn?" she asked hopefully.

He blinked. "…come again?"

A grin crept onto Amara's face. Bingo.

* * *

"I never thought I'd say this. But those creatures make the pipsqueak look tall."

Envy was staring at the screen with an expression of puzzled curiosity. Once he'd gotten over the novelty of the moving people on the screen and had been utterly enraptured by the chaotic fight scene in the beginning of the movie, he'd sat back on the couch and watched skeptically as Bilbo Baggins explained the various details of the Shire and the Hobbits living there.

Amara grinned slightly. He was actually taking it better than she'd expected. If he wasn't gagging and fleeing the room at the innocent naivety of the Shire, there was a good chance he'd survive through the whole movie.

"What did you say this was called again?" he asked.

"The Lord of the Rings." She reached into the bowl of popcorn in Envy's lap and contentedly munched the buttery kernels.

"Why rings? Why not something a little more badass?" he demanded.

"Like what? Philosophers Stones?" she asked dryly.

Envy shrugged. "There had better be some half decent villains in this. That Sauron guy got wiped out way too easily."

"The ring wraiths show up pretty soon," Amara reassured him.

"Ring wraiths?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Just watch the movie!" she retorted. There was silence for several minutes.

"Are there going to be more battle scenes like there were in the beginning? 'Cause I don't know how much more of this fluffy crap I can take."

Amara rolled her eyes. "How about I skip ahead to some action?" she suggested.

"Yes _please_!" he sounded desperately relieved. Amara blinked, and then turned to stare at him. He frowned. "What?"

"…You just said 'please.'"

His eyes widened slightly. "No I didn't! Hurry up and skip ahead dammit!" he snapped, eyes focusing back on the screen.

"...Right." She wasn't at all convinced, but she nevertheless obeyed.


	10. Chapter 10

Evening came far too quickly for Amara's taste.

They'd made it through the first movie, and part of the second before she had reluctantly concluded they needed to start getting ready. She stared at herself in the mirror uncertainly. She wasn't one for dressing up, but it was a custom that when she and Rachel went out in the evening they made a point of looking their best. Which meant turtlenecks and baggy jeans were out of the question. Rachel had dragged her out shopping not that long ago, and the blonde likely expected her to make use of what they'd bought. It wasn't really Amara's style, but she uncomfortably admitted to herself that Rachel knew how to dress to attract-shiny, black high-heeled boots snuggly hugged the curves of her calves over a pair of tight, dark, skinny jeans. A pale blue blouse made of wispy material clung to her figure and fell off of one shoulder, showing a touch more skin than she was comfortable with. A shimmery scarf wrapped about her neck to hide the bandage there and her eyes were darkened by more makeup than she typically made use of. She'd swept her coppery waves to the side in a loose side ponytail that fell over her bare shoulder, offering some warmth and reassurance.

She let out a resigned sigh. On any other night she might actually enjoy going out with Rachel-at least a little. It got her out of her dreary apartment. But between Envy, her upcoming exam, and how unpleasantly hopeless she still felt, socializing wasn't an appealing thought. She glanced at the door and swallowed nervously. Envy was waiting in the living room in his Enver form. And doubtless he wouldn't be dressing any more casually than she was. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to survive an evening with the sin in that form. Especially given that every other female they ran into would be falling all over themselves to get a chance to know the darkly attractive young man.

All in all it looked like things were shaping up to create a hellish evening.

She pulled the door open reluctantly and slowly strolled down the hall. It was already completely dark outside, so the lights of the apartment cast a warm glow over everything. She hesitated at the entrance to the living room. Envy turned away from the window to face her and, as expected, her heart skipped a beat. Furthermore her throat tightened, making air somewhat hard to come by.

 _Honestly, Amara, this is just stupid!_

But then, Rachel probably wouldn't have reacted any differently. A black, button-up shirt with the top three buttons undone showed off part of Enver's muscular chest. It tucked into a pair of belted black jeans, with black cargo boots to complete the outfit. Despite the casual nature of the clothing, when placed on the physique of the disguised sin it had a stunning effect. His sleek black hair was swept back in its usual, tousled style, and his large dark eyes captured her gaze and refused to let it go.

He let out a low whistle. "Wow. You can actually shine up when you choose to."

She felt her cheeks flush with heat. _Ugh_. It was just Envy in a different form, but she couldn't help it. He was gorgeous.

She swallowed her nerves and found her voice. "Are you sure you want to look….quite that…appealing? You're going to attract a lot of attention..."

He crossed the room to her in several slow steps and raised an eyebrow. "Hmm. I think it'd be more appropriate for me to tell _you_ that. Are you ready to go?"

Amara let out a reluctant sigh. "No. But I doubt that'll change anything."

He smirked, a leather jacket appearing on his form with a crackle of electricity.

She turned and grabbed her winter jacket from the hook by the door. She would probably freeze on the way to the bar, but it would be hot enough when they got to the crowded joint that it didn't really matter...

* * *

Their boots crunched softly against freshly fallen snow as they walked side-by-side down the street. Streetlights created evenly spaced pools of golden light amidst the darkness, highlighting the snowflakes that drifted lazily down from the otherwise black sky. The exposed skin on Amara's cheeks and ears burned in the crisp air as it slowly grew numb. Their breath puffed out in small clouds, hanging hauntingly in the still air.

"I hate winter," Amara whispered, hunching her shoulders within her jacket.

Envy glanced at her. "Why?"

She shot him a look. The sin was apparently unaffected by the cold. It really wasn't fair.

"Because it's dark, and cold, and miserable."

There was a brief silence before he finally responded.

"There's plenty of warmth over here if you're cold." The smirk in was audible in his voice.

" _No thank you!_ "

She turned her gaze pointedly back down the sidewalk, grateful that her cheeks were already flushed from the crisp air. The bar was several blocks away. Ordinarily she would have taken a taxi, but she wasn't keen on inflicting Envy upon any more people than absolutely necessary. She still hadn't figured out how she was going to keep him from turning the bar into an all-out warzone. There was no way he'd just sit still and behave himself...

Envy abruptly grabbed her arm and dragged her into the alley to their right.

His hand clamped over her mouth, preventing any sound from escaping her lips. "We're being followed," he murmured near her ear.

Amara let out a soft squeak of disbelief. _Seriously? This_

Despite the alarming information he had imparted to her, he took her arm and led her down the alley at a casually slow pace, almost as if he was waiting for the pursuer to catch up with them.

Amara's eyes widened.

Maybe that was exactly what he was doing. She wasn't sure what sort of creeper would start stalking a couple walking together at night, but she suddenly felt very sorry for whoever it was...

Envy came to a stop and turned to face the entrance of the alley.

Amara couldn't hold back her gasp when a group of figures rounded the corner, silhouetted by the streetlight behind them. There were five in total, and while she couldn't make out their features as the strode boldly into the dark alleyway, they were clearly male.

"Just hand over your wallets and we might not have to hurt you," the leader of the group drawled casually. He sounded young. Probably not more than twenty-five.

Envy snorted. "What makes you think we have any money?"

"In that case, we'll just take the girl," the man sneered.

Alarm thrilled through Amara's stomach as the group closed in on them.

Envy chuckled, sounding thoroughly amused. "You're more than welcome to _try..._ "

And then the dimly lit alleyway exploded into chaos.

Amara stumbled back as Envy lunged toward the men. She realized with a prick of horror that he'd shifted back to his preferred form, his arm crackling into a blade.

 _Shit_.

These guys were so totally screwed. Realistically, maybe they deserved it. They probably would have raped her, and maybe even killed her. But regardless, there was no way she was comfortable with lives being taken right before her eyes.

"Envy don't!" she cried, knowing it was likely totally useless. She opened her mouth to shout something when a hand clamped over it roughly from behind. She squeaked as she was pulled back against someone's chest and a blade was pressed to her throat.

Apparently there'd actually been six attackers.

This one had come up behind them from the other end of the alley.

"Back off, or the girl's as good as dead!" her captor ordered hoarsely

The other five men already lay strewn on the ground. From the moans and half-hearted attempts to move, they were all still alive. But their blood spilled darkly into the snow around them. Envy stood in the midst of the carnage, his arm still morphed into a blade, black splatters of blood covering his arms and face. With the light from the street at his back, his palm-tree-like silhouette was suddenly menacing, his violet eyes seeming to glow in the dark.

Amara drew in a sharp breath. No wonder the guy holding her sounded scared. Envy looked downright terrifying like this.

The homunculus turned and began to saunter towards them. Amara held her breath as the man tightened his grip on her, the blade at her neck beginning to tremble unnervingly. Then, abruptly, he dropped the knife and released her, turning and bolting down the alley with a terrified cry.

Time slowed.

Amara saw Envy move to pursue the man and knew all too well that if he was allowed his way, none of the men would be alive at the end of it.

She swiftly bent and snatched up the knife. "Envy, stop right there!"

Something in her tone must have drawn the sin's attention because he paused a moment and glanced at her.

"Don't you dare kill them." Her own voice came out a little hoarse as she felt the weight of that ominous purple gaze. Even when she reminded herself that he couldn't do anything to her without injuring himself in the process, there was a primal reaction in the core of her being to the predatory aura radiating from the homunculus.

"But they're criminals!" His tone was incredulous as he turned to face her fully.

"I don't care! I know you don't give a damn about humans or the sanctity of human life but I _do_! As long as you're in _my_ world, you're under _my_ charge. And you won't be killing _anyone!_ Am I clear?"

The words were brave, but her voice wavered, and she shrank back slightly when he took a step towards her.

"And just what do you plan on doing to stop me?" He whispered, a threatening edge to the question as he took another step towards her.

A strange sensation electricity seemed to race through her limbs, and then her body went numb as her mind emptied out all thoughts. Except for one.

This was it.

She'd promised to throw her life away and now she had to be true to that.

She lifted the knife and pressed the blade against her throat. "Don't push me," she warned. Her voice was soft, yet deathly serious. "Because I _will_ do something we'll both regret if that's what it takes to stop you."

Somehow, she held his terrifying gaze. Unblinking. Unwavering. Her heart thundered in her chest, a mile a minute. Then her own hand began to tremble.

She'd thought it would be easy.

So many times in the past few months she'd wanted nothing more than to die. She stared down at her bottles of pills and hesitated only because she'd been afraid that there wouldn't be enough to properly finish her off. Because she was afraid she'd wake up in a hospital, still very much alive and trapped in her life.

At least, that's what she'd told herself.

But now that it suddenly came right down to it... Now that she was literally staring death in the face and she knew there was no way around the fact that she had to take her own life... She came to an earth shattering realization-she didn't want to die.

Not here. Not now. Maybe even not ever. She wasn't ready. And she wasn't sure she would actually be strong enough to pull it off.

Envy slowed to a stop in front of her, still staring her down with his ominous gaze. "Do you really want to die?" he purred.

"…N-no… But what I want doesn't matter in this case." Her stomach clenched, threatening to empty itself as her entire body tensed to the point of quivering, the mixture of fear and dread in her gut overpowering her desperate desire to be brave.

When his hand reach up towards the knife, she jerked backwards, accidentally nicking herself with the blade and opening another shallow wound at the base of her throat.

He rolled his eyes. "I won't kill them. Give me the knife."

She stared at him uncertainly, not at all sure she could trust him. "...You promise?" it came out as a whisper.

He sighed heavily, and a moment later there was a crackle of red light. She blinked. The form of Enver stood before her once more. The blade for an arm and the blood spatters were gone.

"I promise." He sounded resigned.

She swallowed nervously, but slowly lowered the blade from her neck. Then it slipped from her fingers without her consent and thudded mutely into the snow. She was trembling much more violently now, and was shocked to realize she was actually on the brink of tears. She couldn't believe how terrified she felt.

Not of Envy.

She was terrified of the idea of having to take her own life. How many times had she wished for an acceptable reason to take that route? Yet now it was apparent she didn't actually want to die.

 _What exactly are you supposed to do when you've lost the desire to live but you're afraid to die?_

"Do you realize what these men were planning on doing with you? And yet you're willing to throw your life away to make me spare them. You're an idiot."

A shudder ran through her and she drew in a shaky breath. For once, she actually agreed with him. But not for the reason he was pointing out. She stared up at his expression, feeling strangely out of breath. Her chest felt tight.

"Do you still want to go to the bar?" she blurted.

He blinked. "Why wouldn't I?"

She swallowed hard, then shrugged half-heartedly and sniffed. "I dunno. Maybe we could find something else to do... Do you really want to be crammed into a hot, dark, loud building packed with intoxicated humans?"

His expression grew thoughtful. "Well…given that I can't kill any of them without you getting suicidal it does sound like a nuisance...You're willing to ditch your friend?" He arched a curious eyebrow.

"She's ditched me more than once because a pretty boy snatched her away. She'll survive."

Envy blinked, then tilted his head, an odd expression creeping over his face. "Did you just call me a 'pretty boy'?"

She blinked several times and then rapidly backpedaled. "No!"

That _definitely_ wasn't what she'd meant. Especially given what Rachel tended to do with the pretty boys she ran off with…

Envy stared at her.

She let out an exasperated sigh. "I just watched you nearly slaughter a group of guys! That does not equate with the description 'pretty boy.'" she pointed out bluntly.

He hummed thoughtfully. "What if I'd done it in this form?" There was dark amusement in the words.

Her jaw dropped slightly."...Doesn't make any difference!" Her voice came out a little squeaky.

He snorted. "Uh-huh... So where else is there to go if not to the bar?"

Amara paused a moment to think. Where _could_ they go? I mean, really, what could she do to entertain a human-hating instigator like Envy? Short of grievously breaking the law, she didn't really have any ideas…

"Umm…"

"You have no idea, do you?"

"Well…do you feel like doing anything that doesn't involve inflicting bodily harm on people?"

His eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at her. She shifted uncomfortably, suddenly self-conscious beneath such intense scrutiny. Then a slow, rather predatory smile spread across his features, making her heart kick into triple time while her stomach did an intense swoop.

That expression... On that face...

It triggered off a multitude of interesting sensations throughout her body. Which was not reassuring in the slightest.

He took a step closer, invading her personal bubble and making her lean away.

"Envy…" she piped up in a warning tone.

"I promise not to harm _anyone,_ in any way, shape or form, if you promise to go along with my plans for the evening." The way he was grinning wasn't helping her breathe normally. She blinked several times, desperately trying to formulate a response, but with his face so close to hers it was growing increasingly difficult to think straight. He was promising not to hurt anyone. That was good, right? I mean it certainly took a huge amount of worry off of her mind. But his plan for the evening…why was she getting a bad feeling…? This couldn't be a good idea…no, she definitely shouldn't agree to this.

"Well," he drawled, leaning closer and reaching up to brush a loose strand of hair away from her face. His fingers brushed lightly across her cheek, leaving a burning trail in their wake. Her mind went blank and her heart came to a stop. Some very distant part of her registered the spark of smug amusement in his deep brown gaze, _and_ recognized that he was just toying with her to get his way. But that part wasn't the part of her mind calling the shots at the moment.

"U-uhmm….okay…."

He smirked triumphantly and released her from his predatory gaze, brushing past her and strolling towards the alley's entrance.

She continued to stare unseeingly into space for a moment, her breathing slowly returning to normal. As her scattered thoughts returned to some form order, a chill crept through her.

What had she just agreed to?

"You coming ginger brain?" Envy called, glancing back at her from the end of the alley.

She swallowed nervously, glancing at him uncertainly before turning to follow.

Why did she suddenly feel like she was in way too far over her head?

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Heavens, I forgot how intense this chapter was until I reread/tweaked it just now. XD BTW, if anyone is interested I actually drew this scene a few years back. You can find it here: okbrightstar deviantart com/art/Predatory-Gaze-410360129 (copy and paste into your browser and add periods where the spaces are).  
**

 **Hope my new followers are enjoying the story so far. ;) I'm editing it slightly as I go, but some days I'm lazier than others so I apologize for any sloppiness that slips past. Got a lot on my plate right now.**

 **All the best, and take care of yourselves!**

 **~ Kasani**


	11. Chapter 11

"How do you know where you're going?" Amara demanded, hastening to keep up with Envy's long strides. Navigating through snow and ice in high heeled boots presented a bit of a challenge.

"I took the chance to explore this end of the city when I got away from you the other morning."

"I see..." Amara glanced around uneasily. There were a bunch of businesses along this strip of sidewalk, and the large parking lot to their left was still half-full. Despite the winter darkness, it wasn't all that late in the evening. There were still plenty of people around - still plenty of potential casualties...

Envy came to a stop by one of the shops to their right and pulled the door open, glancing at her expectantly. She glanced in the windows and froze.

Why on earth would he want to take her _here_ …?

"Envy, this is a liquor store. What the hell?"

He shot her an impish grin. "You promised..." his voice had a sing-song note to it.

She stared at him incredulously. "You've _got_ to be kidding me."

"Are you coming or not ginger brain? I'm not going to hold this door forever."

Slowly, she shook her head at him. "...I can't believe you."

With reluctance, she strolled past him into the store's bright interior. While she'd technically been of legal drinking age for just over half a year, she'd never been much into alcohol. She usually only drank with Rachel, and never got nearly as intoxicated as her blonde friend. Thus, she really didn't know what to look for in such a large store full of fancy bottles. She wasn't even sure what she liked…Rachel was usually the one that picked stuff out.

The store clerk was thankfully occupied by another customer in the far corner, the hum of the refrigeration units competing with their cheerful banter. Envy glanced around curiously, though he didn't look the least bit out-of-place in his Enver form.

"I didn't realize you drank." Amara raised an eyebrow at him.

He snorted. "I don't."

She frowned in puzzlement. "Then why exactly are we here?"

"Because something tells me you'll be more fun when you're drunk." A knowing smirk tugged at his lips.

Her jaw dropped. " _Excuse me?!_ Easier to manipulate, you mean." She glared daggers at him.

His smirk slipped to a pout. "Saw through that, huh?"

"You're an idiot."

The smirk came back in full force. "Says the girl who already agreed to go along with my plans for the evening."

"No way am I getting drunk. I don't even like drinking!" she protested, struggling to keep her voice down.

"Well, then I guess you'll just have to consider your options. Either you keep your promise and no one gets hurt, or we get to find out just how many people I can maim and slaughter before you manage to take your own life. Your choice." Envy's tone was infuriatingly innocent.

Anger simmered dangerously close to the surface of her calm façade. She clenched her hands into fists. "Have I ever told you just how much I loathe your very existence?"

He offered her a taunting grin. "Awe, no need to get angry ginger brain. This'll be fun," he said, walking farther into the store.

"What I consider to be fun and what you consider to be fun are two very different things," she muttered, following after him with a glower. No way. She wasn't letting him get her drunk and then parade around doing whatever the hell he wanted. There had to be some way to control him…

And then a thought occurred to her.

"If you're going to make me drink, then you have to drink too."

He paused, glancing back at her with dark eyebrows arched high on his tanned forehead. "And why on earth would I do that?"

She stared at him thoughtfully for a moment, then glanced away, reaching out to straighten a wine bottle on the shelf next to her. "Oh, that's alright. You'd never be able to hold your liquor as well as me anyway..."

Maintaining an innocent face while bluffing was not usually her forte, but the anger in her veins proffered the necessary assistance. The fact that she was a lightweight was completely beside the point.

His eyes narrowed. "I could never be outdone by a human."

She met his gaze again with a sudden smirk. "Prove it."

He stared at her for several moments, clearly trying to figure out how to respond. She'd trapped him nicely, and both of them knew it.

His expression slipped into a flat glare. "Fine."

She managed to limit her surge of triumph to a small grin as she brushed past him toward a part of the store that looked vaguely more promising than the elegantly labeled bottles currently surrounding them. There was no sense in irritating him further than was necessary while out in public. But at the same time, the back of her mind prickled with unease.

How on earth would his body respond to alcohol?

Given the affect the Neocitrin had had on him, this might very well turn into something she would live to regret...


	12. Chapter 12

Shortly thereafter they found themselves seated on a park bench.

The snow had ceased falling, and though it was still freezing, the lack of wind made it tolerable. The park itself was dark, with streetlights lining the edges. Their bench was encompassed by the glow of one such light.

Amara shifted the brown paper bag in her lap, the bottles within clinking faintly from the movement. For herself, she'd picked out a four-pack of coolers - though, only because buying a single hadn't been an option. Envy, despite her warnings against it, had picked out a bottle of straight vodka.

When he reached a glove-clad hand into the bag and pulled it out, she eyed him skeptically. "You're going to find that disgusting."

"It can't be any worse than that medicine you fed me," he retorted.

Her eyes narrowed. "I thought you couldn't remember that?"

"That isn't a taste one forgets easily."

"Hn. Well, I still think you're going to find that very unpleasant."

Drinking straight vodka sounded about as appealing to her as downing the rubbing alcohol in her cupboard.

Envy shrugged, the picture of nonchalance as he unscrewed the lid with an easy _snick_ and raised it to his mouth. She tried to suppress her smirk as a very odd expression crossed his face at the taste of the strong liquid. That he didn't spew it across the snowy ground in front of them was a testament to his stubbornness, but his cheeks bulged and his eyes widened much farther than usual before he managed to swallow the burning liquid.

She couldn't help a small grin. "I tried to warn you..."

He gave her an unenthused look and set his bottle aside on the bench. "What do _your_ drinks taste like?"

She rolled her eyes. Somehow, she'd expected this. Reaching into the bag, she pulled out two of the citrus coolers and handed both of them to him. "Can you open these? I don't have a bottle opener."

He raised an eyebrow, but flicked off each lid using only his thumbs. Then he handed one back and watched her expectantly. A smile tugged at her lips.

"It's not poisonous, you know."

Unless one drank too much of it…

She raised the bottle to her lips and took a sip, the twist of alcohol in the fruity drink making her shudder. For all that everyone else her age seemed obsessed with the stuff, she didn't think she'd ever be a fan of it...

Upon seeing that she didn't keel over, Envy took a careful sip of his own bottle, and his eyebrows shot up. "Why does this taste so different?" He held the bottle up to the streetlight, staring at the pinkish liquid with a puzzled frown.

"Because the vodka isn't straight." She smirked. "There are fruit juices. Sugar. Strange artificial flavourings... etc."

"Huh..." He stared at the bottle for a moment before raising it to his lips again. Then proceeded to drain it in record time.

Amara's eyes widened. "Uh…you might want to slow down a little..."

He dropped the bottle in the snow and held out his hand for another one.

"Maybe you should take a second to see how that affects you… If you've never drank before then you might find…"

He ignored her suggestion and shoved his hand back into the bag, pulling out another one.

She heaved a sigh. This probably wasn't going to end well. But then, he hadn't had much self-control with the Nutella, so if he'd taken it into his head that he liked these coolers…well…it was a good thing she'd only bought four. Maybe she should try to quickly drink the other two so he couldn't have them…. But on the flip side, with an an empty stomach that was more than enough to make her quite tipsy…

She took another sip of her cooler, watching him finish his second drink almost as swiftly as the first. For a minute it looked like he was going to reach for another one, but then he hesitated. It was hard to tell with his tanned skin and the dim light, but she could just about swear she saw a hint of color in his cheeks. He glanced at her, head cocked slightly.

"I feel….interesting…" his tone was a little unusual and she gave him an odd look. He sounded…friendly.

"Umm, maybe you should hold off on drinking more..."

He stared at her thoughtfully for a moment, cocking his head further. He abruptly lunged forward and grabbed her into a rib-crushingly tight hug, forcing a gasp from her lips and sending the bag of alcohol tumbling off her lap into the snow.

"Envy, _what are you doing?!"_ she squeaked.

He pulled back slightly and released her. "You looked like you needed a hug." The words were frank, his eyes unguarded and sincere.

She stared at him wide eyed, utterly floored. There was no question about it. From the unusual expression on his face, to the out of character tone of his voice… He was definitely drunk. But…she _never_ would have pegged Envy as a 'friendly' drunk.

"You should drink more," he suggested in a tone that almost sounded concerned. "You look stressed." A worried frown creased his brow.

She continued to stare at him.

He let out an exaggerated sigh and grabbed the cooler from her hand before holding it up to her mouth.

She jerked back. "Envy! I don't need you to feed it to me. " Swiftly, she snatched the bottle away from him.

"Then hurry up and drink it! You're way too grumpy." His expression deteriorated to a pout. And then he hiccupped.

Amara blinked at him, having a hard time focusing on anything other than the bizarrely out of character aura radiating from the homunculus. He glanced down at himself with a frown. A moment later red electricity crackled across him and he was back in his usual form.

Amara gasped. "No Envy! You need to…well at least put on some winter clothes or something!" She glanced around nervously, hoping no one had just witnessed the inhuman transformation.

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"Because you can't go walking around in the middle of winter in a skort and a crop top!"

His expression deteriorated, leaving him looking rather hurt. A crackle of electricity passed over him again creating a normal looking outfit of boots, pants and a dark winter coat with a scarf. His palm-tree-like hair still looked hopelessly out of place, but at least he didn't look like a raving lunatic running around half naked in the snow.

"You're so mean," he complained, staring at her with large, injured eyes.

"I'm…mean…?" she couldn't believe what she was hearing and seeing.

He nodded unhappily.

She drew in a deep breath. Then she glanced down at the cooler in her hand. This was very clearly going to be a long, bizarre night. She raised the bottle to her lips and finished it in several gulps.

"Yay! My turn!" Envy snatched up the bottle of vodka.

"Woah woah woah!" Amara half-tackled him in an attempt to get the bottle away. "Don't start drinking that. You're already drunk enough!"

"I'm not drunk," Envy told her very seriously, holding the bottle away out of her reach. His tone and expression had sobered so quickly that for a minute she almost believed him. Then he gasped and leaned in uncomfortably close to her face, studying her intently as his nose brushed against hers.

"Envy…what…the hell…?" She tried to slowly lean away, but he followed her, refusing to leave her personal bubble.

"Your eyes…they're so pretty." She couldn't make out his expression with his face so close to her own, but his own wide eyes seemed awestruck. The expression was so mind-bogglingly out of place in his usually ominous, violet gaze that she could only stare at him slack-jawed. When he continued to stare back at her earnestly, she felt a wave of unexpected, giddy amusement begin to build in her chest. A moment later it spilled out in the form of helpless laughter. She leaned away from him, doubling over and clutching at her stomach while she laughed to tears.

Of all the things she'd expected to hear from the envious sin, _that_ hadn't been one of them.

As she began to pull herself together she heard a sound and glanced at him through the blur of tears to see him easily consuming the bottle of vodka.

Damn.

She lunged at him and managed to grab it away, but felt a sinking feeling as she found it was already more than three quarters empty.

"Envy…?" she inquired nervously.

He glanced around curiously. "Why are we here?" His speech was totally clear and unslurred, but the happy-go-lucky, friendly tone practically screamed he was intoxicated.

Amara frowned slightly. "Envy…do you remember your promise about not hurting people?"

He turned a cheerful gaze on her. "Nope." Amara's pang of anxiety must have shown on her face because Envy's eyes promptly widened. "But don't worry! We don't have to hurt people if you'd rather do something else! I think the blood might stain your coat anyway," he added thoughtfully.

Amara stared at him for a moment before wilting. Not only was she stuck with an insanely powerful, psychopathic palm tree; now he was drunk.

"Please just kill me now," she muttered, raising the bottle and finishing off the last of the liquid with a pained grimace.

"But…" his tone made her glance at him in surprise. He looked downright horrified. "I don't want to kill you. I like you!" he told her, eyes wide with worry.

She blinked at him slowly. "You are drunk." The statement was bland.

He gave her an odd look. "No, I'm Envy." He sounded affronted. Then suddenly he jumped to his feet. "I want to do something!" he declared.

Amara rose hastily and staggered. Huh. Drinking on an empty stomach probably hadn't been the cleverest idea…

"Uh…what exactly…?" she asked warily.

Envy abruptly snapped to attention staring down the street and Amara's eyes widened as the sound of ruckus laughter and loud talking could be heard. It seemed a group of guys who were as similarly intoxicated as Envy were headed their way.

Suddenly Envy bent down, gathering a very large handful of snow into a ball.

"Envy, what are you doing?" Amara demanded, puzzled. He straightened up, holding his newly formed snowball tucked under his arm. He held a finger to his lips in an order to keep silent and then began to creep down the sidewalk towards the approaching group of young men.

The coppertop let out a gusty sigh and followed after him. No point in trying to stop him. Given how absurdly abnormal he was acting, perhaps there wasn't as much of a risk of him creating a violent scene…

As they neared the men Envy abruptly grabbed her arm and yanked her into small copse growing along the sidewalk. They waited with bated breath for the men to approach.

"Seriously, Envy, what are you-?" Her question was cut off when he abruptly leapt forward with a triumphant yell.

" _Sneak attack!_ " He threw the snowball and absolutely clobbered the leader of the group, hitting him square in the face and sending him sprawling backwards into the snow. "Score!" he threw his hands in the air in triumph.

The other members of the group seemed utterly taken off guard.

"Dude, what the fuck?" one of them demanded.

Amara gasped as she saw Envy dart forward, and her gut clenched in dread as she wondered what exactly he was about to do. The palm-tree-haired sin came to a screeching stop right in front of the startled man and reached up, flicking him lightly on the forehead.

"You're it!" He informed him with a grin, "Catch me if you can!"

And then he was gone, racing away in the direction they had just come from.

Amara stared after him flabbergasted, before realizing if she wasn't careful she might actually lose him.

"Envy wait! Wait up!" She leapt out of the small wood and attempted to race after him. He was cutting across the middle of the park through drifts of snow, which meant that pursuing him was rather difficult in high-heeled boots. After a second or two she managed to trip and go sprawling, face-planting in the snow as her forward momentum kept her from effectively catching herself. She lay stunned for a moment, head spinning slightly as her face burned from contact with the icy fluff.

"Hey! Watcha doin?" A cheerful voice demanded.

She glanced up to see Envy staring down at her curiously.

"Making snow angels," she muttered.

He gasped. Then he fell backwards.

Amara could have sworn she felt the ground shake as his body thoroughly crushed the snow and likely made a slight crater in the frozen grown. She blinked, pushing herself up slightly. He abruptly flailed his arms and legs in an odd manor before leaping to his feet and whirling around to inspect his work.

"Tada!" he declared. Amara slowly pulled herself to her feet, staggering over to stand next to him. After a moment she felt a grin spread across her face.

"Congratulations," she told him dryly. "You've created the world's first ever palm-tree-angel."

It was true. The impression his body had left behind in the dirt was somewhat comical.

He blinked at her. "But isn't it a _snow_ palm-tree angel?"

Amara raised an eyebrow. "It would be if you'd made it in the snow. You carved that thing into the ground." She couldn't help but wonder what people would make of it when they came across it the next day...

"Hey! There they are!"

Both Amara and Envy jumped slightly and turned to see the group of guy's that Envy had ambushed were actually attempting to pursue them.

"Um…I think we should run," Amara observed.

"Ok," Envy replied agreeably. Abruptly, he grabbed her, scooping her into his arms and taking off at a terrifying speed across the park.

Amara let out a slight shriek, clinging to him tightly. She closed her eyes against the rush of icy air, burying her face against his jacket and praying they didn't end up getting hit by a car.

* * *

 **-A/N-**

 **Binge drinking: don't try it at home. Especially not with Envy.  
**

 **Seriously though, it can kill you. Just don't do it. ^^;**


	13. Chapter 13

A little while later they came to a stop. Amara blinked her eyes open and felt a thrill of surprise. They were back on the street outside the liquor store.

"Those drinks were yummy. We should get more." Envy set her down and gave her a serious stare. "And _you_ didn't drink enough!"

"Uuhhh…" Amara's thoughts were scattered. How much had she had to drink anyway? Judging by the oddly giddy fuzzy feeling, she'd had too much. She wasn't use to hard liquor. Part of her was screaming that she needed to put the brakes on and sober up, but she couldn't seem to remember why it was so important.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" Envy's grin was childishly excited.

She stared at his expression for a moment with a growing feeling of amusement. There was something strangely contagious about his enthusiasm. It took a moment for her to register that she had started grinning right back at him. She felt the tiny, sane and sober part of her mind fighting a losing battle to get her attention and remind her why she needed to remain maturely in control of the situation.

Mature? Screw that noise.

She'd been playing babysitter long enough. It was time to have some fun!

She smirked mischievously. "Alright," she replied, and felt a wash of amused satisfaction as the palm-tree-haired homunculus lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Yippy!" He yanked the liquor store door open forcefully enough that he bent the metal handle.

Amara snickered slightly. "If you rip the door off its hinges, I don't think the owner will want to sell anything to you."

Envy's eyes widened in alarm, and then he hastened to bend the door handle back into a more or less normal position. "Better?" He glanced at her anxiously.

Amara giggled at his expression. "Good enough." She strolled forward through the open doorway. "Let's do this!"

Envy followed after her, a grin returning to his expression. "I like you better when you're drunk."

She stuck her tongue out at him over her shoulder. The voice of reason had finally decided to shut up and ride out the storm.

This was going to be awesome.

* * *

 **-A/N-**

 **Or not. We'll see if she remembers it after...X'D**


	14. Chapter 14

Amara let out a soft moan and turned her head, burying it against something warm to escape the light shining on her closed eyelids.

 _Pain... So much pain... my head... Nnngghh..._

The throbbing, fuzzy misery intensified when she shifted her head and her stomach lurched. As her mind slowly returned to some form of consciousness, a single thought drifted into her mind.

Why on earth did she feel so hellishly awful?

Even trying to think seemed to make the headache worse. What had happened last night? Her memory felt so fuzzily fragmented. Where was she now? She couldn't be passed out on the ground somewhere - she felt much too comfortable. And…oddly warm… There seemed to be a slight weight around her, and when she paused to take notice of it, whatever she was lying on was slowly moving.

Her eyes blinked open rapidly and she winced as she was blinded by rays of morning light streaming through the bedroom window…

Wait…the bedroom window?

"Finally awake, huh?"

The voice came from just above her. She raised her head slightly, blinking slowly as she met slit pupils in a violet gaze.

Envy. Some of his palm-tree-like hair splayed around them, while the rest spilled over the pillows.

 _…huh?_

And then very slowly she glanced down and realized the position she was in. She was nestled against his chest with his arms around her, the covers of the bed partly covering their prone forms.

She blinked. Several times. And then she glanced up to meet his gaze again. He raised an eyebrow bemusedly.

Her head felt far too miserable for any immediate, decisive action. It came as a slight relief that despite their precariously cliché way of waking up after a wild night of intoxication, they were miraculously still clothed.

Well…she wasn't sure that really counted in Envy's case, but she was fairly sure he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of redressing her if she'd managed to find her way out of her own clothes.

She heaved a sigh, resting her head back against his chest and closing her eyes against the torturous light. "What. The hell. Do I want to know how we ended up like this?" The question was muffled against his crop-top.

She hadn't expected to wake up in the arms of a half-naked homunculus. Granted, half-naked was his norm…

"Can't say I remember…but I must say, I'm rather curious," he murmured dryly.

"How long have you been awake?"

"A while."

There was a pause.

"Then why are we still in this position?" Amara frowned, though she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes.

"Because you're warm and I'm comfortable." He sounded content.

She almost raised her head to glare at him, but the pain in her head dissuaded her. Instead she settled for a groan. "Ugh….I feel horrible." Maybe if she threw up on him he'd go away.

"Really? I feel fine."

She lifted her head slowly to gaze at him in disbelief. His gaze was clear and he didn't appear to be in any sort of discomfort.

"I hate you," she moaned and lowered her head again.

The damn homunculus probably couldn't get hangovers thanks to his healing abilities. Although why he wasn't feeling her pounding headache she didn't have a clue.

"I somehow doubt that." The amusement in his tone rankled.

"Why?" The word came out waspishly.

"Well, unless you make a habit of cuddling up to your enemies in bed…"

"I was drunk..."

"Uh-huh."

"Look you, this is _your_ fault."

He snorted. "I may have gotten you drunk, but I somehow doubt I forced you into this position."

"Ugh...My head hurts too much to argue with you."

"And for all your complaining you don't seem too eager go anywhere." The bastard actually had the nerve to sound smug.

"I hurt too much to move..."

Ugh. How had she gotten to the point where she'd rather cuddle with a psychopathic-palm-tree than deal with a hangover?

"So do you remember _anything_ that happened last night?" she grumbled at last.

"Hmm… a few things…" he murmured thoughtfully.

"...Like what?"

"I didn't know you knew how to dance like that." He sounded oddly admiring.

She blinked and raised her head. "We were dancing?"

" _You_ were dancing." He smirked.

"I was _dancing?_ " Her voice cracked, and a stab of pain through her temples made her stomach lurch.

He chuckled, and the rumble of it in his chest did nothing to ease her nausea. "I had to fight off your intoxicated admirers,"

"Wait…what? You didn't…"

He rolled his eyes. "I didn't kill anyone. Would you relax?"

She swallowed uncomfortably. "Do you remember anything else?"

"Well…frankly you're probably better off not knowing about a lot of it." He grinned. _Actually_ grinned. It was not reassuring...

She frowned. "How much do you remember precisely?"

He half-shrugged, jostling her slightly and making her stomach do further, uncomfortable things. "A lot of it…It's just towards the end it gets a little fuzzy. I think I'd had a couple bottles of tequila by that point though…"

"A couple _bottles?_ "

Perhaps her main concern should be what they had done to her bank account...

"I think it's safe to say I hold my liquor better than you." He raised his chin a little, the self-satisfied tone making her itch to slap him.

She shook her head. Albeit, very slowly. "I can't believe you made us get drunk..."

"Hey, you're the one that made _me_ get drunk, if you remember that much."

"'Cause if I hadn't you would've taken total advantage of me."

"Probably. You know, I can't actually remember what I was planning to do once you got drunk…" He frowned thoughtfully.

"Probably for the best...I'm not sure I want to know. You're a sick, twisted person."

He snorted. "And your hair looks like a bonfire. Any other painfully obvious comments you'd like to make?"

"Don't get smart with me palm-tree."

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you want to take that tone at the moment? There's a lot I can do with this situation without killing you, you know..."

"You wouldn't…"

He snorted. "Wanna bet? All I'd have to do is switch forms into Enver and you'd probably _enjoy_ it..."

" _Uugghhh!_ Let go of me you pervert," she snapped, trying to pull out of his hold weakly.

He rolled his eyes, but otherwise didn't move. "You are pitifully easy to rile up, you know that?"

She glared at him flatly, giving up on her attempts to get away when her stomach once again threatened to empty itself. She swallowed hard and then settled for grumbling, "You're a jerk..."

"Mmmhmmm….say, when was that exam you were so worried about?"

The horrible dropping sensation his words provoked in her gut played a harsh counterpoint with the already present nausea. She wilted against him in defeat.

"Early tomorrow morning..."

"Huh….so are you ready?" he asked. She raised her head to give him a flat look.

"Thanks to you, no way in hell."

"Hmm." He didn't sound particularly concerned.

"Please let me study today," She forced her eyes wider in a pleading, puppy-dog look.

His forehead creased into a look somewhere between perplexed and disturbed. "You want to study with a hangover?"

She nodded.

He slowly shook his head in disbelief. "You really are a masochist..." he muttered.

"Not by choice." The words were rueful.

"Well…if you put the rest of that movie on, I might let you study for a bit..." he conceded finally.

In spite of the pain in her skull, she felt expression brighten. "Really?"

"Only if you make more popcorn."

"Done!"

She pulled back out of his grasp and scrambled painfully over to the edge of the bed.

"Right now…?" He sounded a little taken aback.

"Yeah! I've got a lot to study."

Standing very nearly resulted in the contents of her stomach ending up on the floor alongside her feet, but she managed to force down the bile and ignored Envy's resigned sigh. As she staggered across the room she set her goal on the extra strength Aspirin in the cupboard.

No doubt about it. Today was going to be a bitch.

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." she muttered.

* * *

 **-A/N-**

 **Would you believe I've never had a hangover? I have, however, had a migraine. Those suck.**

 **Luckily for Amara, we are nearing the end of this tale of woe. There are still a couple more chapters but... Anyone up for a sequel? :P**


	15. Chapter 15

**_24 hours later_**

Envy lay sprawled on her bed, savouring his way through another container of Nutella. Amara stared down at her laptop, trying to will herself into opening it.

She had somehow survived yesterday. Envy had blessedly allowed her to study for the entire day, content to watch movies and leave her in peace. In fact, ever since their night of intoxication he'd been a lot easier to get along with…she had no idea what could have happened to have had that effect, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know. He'd even accompanied her to the exam that morning without too much hassle and managed to keep himself occupied for three hours without causing mayhem in the streets.

But, though she was ridiculously grateful for the unexpected change in the homunculus, after the exam that morning, she had a sinking feeling that the transformation had come too late. Of course… There was a slight chance she'd passed… It had actually gone better than she'd expected. She thought she might even have maybe sort of possibly pulled off a grade of maybe 50. Maybe.

She really hoped.

Finally she reached her arm forward and flipped open the laptop, lowering herself down into the computer chair and clicking open her browser.

"You look like you're walking to your own funeral," Envy commented dryly.

She swallowed nervously, ignoring him. She _felt_ like she was walking to her own funeral. She pulled up the university site and signed in. Her mouse hesitated over the link to her grades.

 _Deep breaths…deep breaths…_

She could do this.

She clicked the button.

Her eyes slowly focused on the screen, drawn to the mark at the bottom of the page. She blinked. And then she felt the ground drop out from underneath her and her entire body seemed to go numb. She couldn't even move. She was frozen, staring unseeingly at the screen.

This had never happened before. Ever. She felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her and then punched her in the gut. She didn't want to believe what her eyes were telling her. She closed her eyes and rested her face in her hands, but the number seemed imprinted on the insides of her eyelids, staring back at her like a mind numbing accusation.

 ** _47/100_**

She had failed.

The painfully tedious, mind shredding work she had spent the last handful of months trying to force her way through had all been for nothing. She'd failed it.

She felt like she was going to be sick.

Slowly, she rose to her feet and walked out of the room, making for the couch in the living room. She sank down onto it and pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her head against them and wrapping her arms around her legs. Her mind was completely blank. The disappointment and mortification were a crushing weight in her chest.

A moment later a voice broke through her frozen web of horrified defeat.

"I take it that wasn't good news then."

She didn't make any move to respond. She wasn't even sure what to say.

"Hey," he sounded slightly irritated, "Are you going to sit and pout about it all day?"

She slowly lifted her head to stare at him. "I don't want to do this anymore."

He blinked. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry…I'm just…I'm tired of fighting this. Obviously there isn't any point. Apparently it doesn't matter how hard I try when I'm like this, I'm bound to fail anyway. What's the point?"

"The point in what?"

"In anything." She shook her head. The hopelessness was back in spades. She couldn't keep wading through each day feeling this pointlessly awful. Envy probably wouldn't even be able to distract her at this point. "I know I couldn't face it before, but at this point…I just want to die. I'm tired of dealing with this shit. I just want to feel ok again." She clenched her jaw, holding back tears that wanted to spring to her eyes as she stared at the floor.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me."

She shook her head numbly.

"You aren't seriously going to give up on life over something as trivial as this."

She shrugged listlessly.

"Oh come on Amara, get over yourself," he sounded exasperated.

She glanced at him with a frown. "Why?"

He let out a frustrated sigh. "Take a lesson from that annoying pipsqueak, would you? He had a hell of a lot more reason to give up than you do. He was up against nearly impossible odds and half the time his life was a living hell. But did he give up? No. He didn't. He kept right on bashing his stubborn head against the same wall. And guess what? The little bastard won. He got his damn body back, and his brother's, and even overthrew the most powerful creature in the world. But do you think he would have pulled that off if he'd sat down and cried about how miserable and impossible his life was? No. Not a fucking chance. Now learn something from that you idiot. Being depressed is no excuse to give up on living. You got that?"

Amara blinked at him slowly. She hadn't expected him to start ranting at her.

"Yeah, but Ed was special..." He was a prodigy alchemist, not to mention a cartoon character. It just wasn't the same thing.

"Bullshit! He was an annoying little idiot that made some really stupid choices and ended up paying for them through the nose. And what about that little pink haired wimp in Lior? She was even more pathetic than you, and that's saying something. But even she got her act together and moved on with her life. Claiming inferiority to other people is no excuse. You are just as capable as they are to stand up and climb your damn mountain. And if you choose not to just because it's hard then you're a coward and a fool." He glared at her.

She stared at him for a long moment. The level of irony that Envy of all people was delivering this speech was not lost on her.

"Why do you care?" she asked finally.

He rolled his eyes and actually face-palmed. "Because if you die I die you numbskull."

"Oh…"

He did have a point there. She wilted in resignation. Why did he have to be so annoyingly chatty and _right_ when she just wanted to be left alone?

"So, have you smartened up yet?"

"But…I failed..."

"So? At least you tried." He didn't sound particularly sympathetic.

"It doesn't matter! I wasn't good enough!" Her voice rose in frustration.

"Then make yourself better, Ginger Brain. You're not dead yet you know," he retorted flatly.

She let out a soft huff. That was easy for him to say. But it was much harder to actually do. Still…the jerk had a point. And realistically, she recognized she was more frustrated than anything else. Dying at this point would just add insult to injury. Hell, she'd survived this long with Envy. Letting a stupid accounting course beat her after all that would be pretty damn pathetic.

Finally she let out a resigned sigh. Well, no point in wallowing around in self-pity... "When did you turn into a wise old sage?"

"A wise old sage?" Envy's eyes widened in disbelief.

"I never realized you were into giving motivational speeches." She allowed herself a small smirk.

He glared at her flatly. "Ha-ha."

She rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Alright, relax. I'm not going to do anything stupid. I'm just…not happy."

He raised an eyebrow. At that moment the front door swung inward. Amara looked up with a start and her eyes widened. Envy raised his eyebrows and made an amused sound.

"Rachel?" Amara stared at her blonde friend in shock. She'd completely forgotten about ditching her the other night...

"Where have you been?" Rachel crossed her arms, glaring from her spot in the doorway. She wore her usual beige coat and tall boots, but the lack of makeup and dark circles under her eyes were a telltale sign that she'd been out late the previous night.

"…I was studying," Amara replied lamely. Slowly, she rose to her feet. Her mind had gone blank as she tried to think up some other excuse.

"Bullshit! You left me hanging the other night! I came over here to check on you and there was nobody here!"

Amara raised an eyebrow. "What, have you been out searching desperately for me the entire time?"

Rachel's expression wavered for a moment before returning to a glare. "Well, after coming to the conclusion that you'd decided to spend the night with your boyfriend alone, I went out and found some other friends to spend time with."

"Uh-huh," Amara replied.

"But seriously, Amara, what the hell? Why'd you skip out?"

"Something came up, alright?" Amara replied, frustration coloring her tone. Her brain was too tired and her nerves far too shot to come up with convincing lies on the spot.

"No, it's _not_ all right. You could have at least called me."

Amara raked a hand through her hair in exasperation. "I didn't have a chance to call you. Besides, I didn't have my phone on me."

Rachel looked like she was about to say something, but then she finally seemed to realize there was someone else standing in the room. Her gaze landed on Envy, still very much in his usual form, and she took a half step backwards, eyes widening.

"Who the hell is _that_?"

Envy smirked at the reaction. Amara turned to give him a flat look.

He raised his hands defensively. "Hey, it's not my fault she burst in before I could change. Unless you _want_ me to shapeshift in front of her..."

Amara face-palmed. Wonderful. There was no way she'd be able to come up with a convincing excuse now…

"…What is he talking about? Amara, what is going on here?" Rachel glanced from the unfamiliar palm-tree-like creature to her friend.

Amara rolled her eyes.

 _Screw it._

"He's the reason I ditched you the other night."

Rachel stared at her like she couldn't quite believe what she was hearing.

"You ditched me for a _cross dresser_?" her voice cracked slightly.

Amara saw Envy's expression slip into a glare out of the corner of her eye and she let out a soft sigh. "Yep."

Her friend gaped at her. "You're saying a freaky-ass hermaphroditic pine tree takes precedence over me?"

Amara's jaw dropped slightly and her eyes widened. Envy…a…pine tree? Well…he was certainly prickly enough for the name to fit…

She shook her head slightly to clear it. "Yes. He does. Because I know _you_ won't go on a rampant killing spree if I leave you unattended."

Rachel glanced back at Envy, expression deteriorating further. "Wait…what? What happened to Enver?"

Envy's expression had darkened alarmingly, and suddenly Amara felt concerned for her friend's wellbeing.

She stepped in his direction. "Envy..."

"Oh, you mean this guy?" Red light crackled over the homunculus's form, transforming him into the tall, dark, young Turkish man.

Amara's heart stuttered slightly and then she felt an uncomfortable sinking feeling in her chest. Something about his expression told her he wasn't finished yet…

She glanced hastily back at her friend and saw the blonde had gone very pale. "Rachel…are you ok?"

Her friend's eyes widened, fear evident in her expression. "Amara, what is he?"

"You think that's neat? How about I show you something _really_ interesting..."

"Envy don't you dare!" Amara lunged towards him and grabbed a hold of his arm. She could tell by his tone and expression just what he had in mind. But no way in _hell_ was she going to let him change into his true form in the middle of her apartment.

Except…with her commands over him no longer in effect, she wasn't quite sure how to go about stopping him.

She tensed in surprise as she felt the odd sensation of red electricity crackling beneath her fingers.

Shit.

 _Truth, you bastard! It's time to step in!_

She staggered back with a feeling of dread as the homunculus began shifting into something much larger than her apartment could possibly hold.

Damn.

She was going to get crushed to death under debris as Envy brought the entire building down around them.

This would be a really stupid way to die. And here she'd decided to get her act together and move on with her life…

Then everything went black.

* * *

 **-A/N-**

 **No that isn't the end. ;P**


	16. Chapter 16

_"My, my, my. I'm impressed you managed to hold things together this long without any subjugation abilities."_

 _The inhuman voice echoed around her._

 _Amara's eyes blinked open to find she was once again in the familiar white space with the door and the annoying little white creature known as Truth._

 _"Dammit all! Why'd you yank me back here?!" Envy demanded._

 _Amara felt a surge of anger as she realized the homunculus was standing next to her in his usual form. She turned and shoved him forcefully. He staggered back a step in surprise, clearly taken off guard._

 _"You stupid idiot!" She hissed._

 _"What the hell ginger brain?" He raised his hands defensively.  
_

 _"How could you do something like that?!" She cried, outraged._

 _Envy rolled his eyes. "I wasn't going to hurt her."_

 _"You would have destroyed my entire apartment!"  
_

 _"Oh… didn't think of that..."_

 _"Ugh." Amara raked a hand through her hair._

 _"Well. You two seemed to have formed a wonderful, warm and fuzzy friendship. I'm almost reluctant to break you up, seeing how sweet you are together," Truth spoke up dryly._

 _Amara turned a bewildered expression on him. "Excuse me?"_

 _"In all seriousness, the two of you have managed far better than I expected. I'm rather glad I chose to give him to you for a while."_

 _"Great, so you stuck me with him just long enough for me to fail my exam?"  
_

 _"Yes," Truth replied frankly._

 _The coppertop's eyes widened. "You mean you did that_ intentionally _?"  
_

 _"Its good for you humans to fail every now and then. Keeps you humble."_

 _"You've got to be kidding me!" She balled her hands into fists._

 _"And it also serves to bring you back to reality. Your worst case scenario happened. Do you really feel like dying over it?" If Truth had eyebrows, Amara had the feeling one of them would have been raised._

 _She dropped her gaze to glare at the ground. "…well…no…"_

 _"That's what I thought. Now that the course is over, do yourself a favor and don't subject yourself to another one. Go take something you actually like."_

 _"Yeah, well, my dad will probably make me move back in with him now," she grumbled._

 _"No he won't. He's a little…preoccupied at the moment…"_

 _Amara glanced up at the creature in surprise before her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"_

 _"You aren't the only one that needed tuning up you know," it told her bluntly._

 _Amara's mind reeled with the implications suddenly bombarding her. The bizarre texts she'd been getting…did that mean…?_

 _"What the hell are you saying?" her voice had gone a little hoarse._

 _Truth shrugged carelessly. "I gave him some company. You may find him a little more attentive in the future."_

 _Amara felt a very unpleasant sinking feeling in her chest. She had a very bad feeling she knew what the creature meant by 'company." And if it was anything like the company it had dumped into her own life…_

 _"Who?" she demanded, a hard edge to her voice.  
_

 _"Well the younger teen version of Edward was complaining about having nothing to do once his older self took over the role in the story," it explained._

 _"You gave my dad_ Edward _?!" she demanded in disbelief.  
_

 _"Indeed. And Pride."_

 _"WHAT?!" She shrieked, eyes widening further._

 _"He was getting a little too snobbish for my tastes."_

 _"You're telling me my father is saddled with both Edward Elric and Selim Bradley the evil homunculus?" she demanded, voice quivering with barely controlled, horrified anger._

 _"Yes. I believe he's finding it challenging managing them and his job. Perhaps you'd like to help him now that your course is finished?" it suggested helpfully._

 _"You have got to be fucking kidding me!"  
_

 _"My, my, you really did rub off on her Envy," the Truth turned a gland look on Envy._

 _Amara glanced briefly at the palm-tree in question and found him grinning from ear to ear at her predicament._

 _"Well you can't really blame her," he drawled. "The pipsqueak_ and _father's creepiest little child? You're even crueler than me."_

 _Amara rolled her eyes at his tone. A feeling of urgency had settled over her. "Alright, let me go. I've got to go help him before they get loose and destroy the world," she grumbled._

 _"I knew I could count on you Amara," Truth sounded ever so slightly smug._

 _"Don't push your luck!" She growled, glaring blackly at it._

 _"And if you need a hand, I'll send Envy back. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help you keep the two of them in line. Especially if he starts getting rambunctious again," it replied reassuringly._

 _Envy's grin disappeared and his expression grew guarded._

 _"Why does that sound like a threat?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at the white humanoid._

 _It grinned alarmingly. "What, don't feel like helping out your new friend?"  
_

 _"Friend? The ginger brain? Hell no," Envy retorted, appearing ever so slightly perturbed at the idea of being sent back to babysit the two boys._

 _"Ugh. I hate both of you," Amara muttered. As her vision began to grow blurry she saw Envy smirk._

 _"Goodluuuuck," his sing-song voice called after her._

 _"I'll be checking in on your later. As before, do try not to die. You're turning out to be more useful than I expected," Truth's voice echoed around her as everything faded to black._

* * *

 ** _A/N  
_**

 **One more chapter guys. ;)  
**


	17. Chapter 17

Amara's eyes snapped open and she drew in a sharp breath.

From her place sprawled on the living room carpet, she could see Rachel collapsed near the door. And there was no sign of Envy. Which meant only one thing.

She had to get to her dad's house before all hell broke loose.

In fact, she was astounded it hadn't already, given that her dad seemed to have been saddled with Edward and Pride for nearly as long as she'd been stuck with Envy.

She scrambled unsteadily to her feet. Of course she'd likely have some explaining to do with Rachel when the girl woke up…Amara rubbed a hand across her forehead in resignation. Right when she'd thought things were starting to sort themselves out, Truth went and dumped an even bigger problem on her…

Well screw him.

She'd prove to the little bastard she could handle anything he threw at her.

Although, she was genuinely concerned over the condition her poor, distracted father would be in after spending a week with the two, radically different yet equally troublesome boys. Still…after a week with Envy, she was pretty sure she could handle whatever she found when she got there.

She raised her head to glare at the ceiling defiantly.

Wherever the hell the creature was, she was sure he could see her.

 **~End~**

* * *

 **-A/N-**

Well...it's not _the_ end. But it's 'an' end. :P

Thank you guys for hanging in there with me on this. I really appreciate all the positive feedback. I first wrote this story years ago, and then I started second guessing myself (I do that a lot, I'm slowly learning not to), and decided I risked causing moral damage to people by posting this because they might get some wrong idea about life in their heads.

The thing is, I'm a Christian. But something I've discovered over the past few years is that there are a _lot_ of Christians in the world. I don't agree with all of them. There are a lot of non-Christians in the world. I actually get along pretty well with some of them. So I figure, you'll take my fiction in whatever light you please and roll with it. If you like it, you'll read it and tell me. If you don't like it, you probably won't waste your time telling me. And if you do, I will probably just laugh because I have had so much worse done to me than any random troll could ever hope to do that I'm virtually invulnerable at this point. XD

At least, that's my current way of looking at it. If you hate me, it'll hurt. But I'll get over and it move on with life. That's just what I do. The funny thing is, I've never actually _gotten_ any haters on...well...anything I've done. Probably because I've never made it big enough to make anyone jealous. :P

In any case, I'm happy to tell you there _is_ a sequel coming to this. The same one that I started posting a few years back, but now revamped and amplified with the help of my fellow writer **Penelope Jadewing** , who I actually met by chance on this site, and later, through a series of mindbogglingly inexplicable events, wound up meeting in person and becoming best friends with. She's been my critique partner for years now and vice versa, and now that we're at the point in our respective careers where we are ready to tackle the world of publishing, we're teaming up to write some stuff together. I'm actually working on the 3rd draft of my original WiP right now, and I plan to send it off to agents after this version is polished. However, I still enjoy writing fanfiction on the side, since I love the FMAB world and it's good practice.

Penelope is of a similar mind, since we originally bonded over FMAB, but ironically I introduced her to Naruto and she wound up getting into that in a major way. I've been her under-cover critique partner on her unfinished fanfiction **As The Mask Cracks** , and since she's been stuck on that lately I've offered to help co-write the current arc so she can get past it and continue on with it herself.

So the plan for **Uninvited Company** is that she is going to help me co-write **More Uninvited Company**. And I've already got a potential 3rd story in mind to continue afterwards, that may very well take place in the FMAB world. But we shall see. Don't want to put the cart ahead of the horse. :P My original fiction is the priority.

That said, I adore this fanfic. I'm having so much fun revamping it because it's got a completely different tone from my current original fic, which lends itself more towards the style of my **The Beauty in Compassion** fanfic (though I would like the think it's far better written than that fic was XD).

Anyway, enough of my blabbering. If you are interested in the sequel to this story, please fav or follow my account and you will be notified as soon as the sequel is posted (hopefully by the end of this week, if my life goes according to plan...). I also encourage you to leave a review, if only to say Hi or Thank you, because the sad reality of this site is that stories only get attention if they have reviews. It's the way we all "cherry pick" the best fiction (ie, what's worth wasting our time on). I don't really care one way or the other if this fic becomes popular, but I do like making people happy and so if you enjoyed it, please spread the love so other people will have the opportunity to enjoy it as well.

In the mean time, take care of yourselves, and I'll talk to you soon!

~ Kasani


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